Climate threat, but it’s raining

If you’re wondering what the government is doing about the climate threat facing the country, the answer is next to nothing. This results from the delays and the clientelistic logic of the Mitsotakis government, according to the data on the absorption of the Recovery Fund where the actual amount concerns only 8% of the total funds that reach 22 billion euros.

In particular, only 2.5 billion euros of actual payments, 4.5 billion euros of stagnant resources, 86% of the Fund’s loans to only 36 (!) large companies, opacity in management and hidden revision, the great majority of small and medium-sized enterprises remain out of the green and digital transition, weak actions for health, roof, resilience, railway, out of integration even the anti-flood projects, dangerous protracted inadequacy that also resulted in the delay of the third tranche.

And we come to the current issue, which is the protection of nature from the unstoppable fires. Of the 556.63 million euros of the total budget of the projects that have been included in the Fund, in this sector, only 5.34 million euros have been absorbed, a percentage of 1%!

Expenditure for the huge irrigation needs of agricultural crops nothing. For example, the great project for the Achelous Dam in Corinth is frozen! The disasters of the previous year in the olive groves, which resulted in the skyrocketing of oil prices, but also in the vines and fruit and vegetable crops, did not worry anyone. And while last year, around August, the market resorted to imports from Belgium (!) and Turkey to meet its tomato needs, this year the corresponding imports started already in mid-June!

At the same time this June, according to the data so far, the rains are particularly limited, which makes June 2024 not only a warm, but also quite a dry month. In fact, the hot-dry-windy phenomenon prevails, according to scientists, during this period due to the strong winds that are blowing. At the same time, the flammability of dead fuel in forests is very high, which makes the situation even more difficult. And, unfortunately, the prediction that the Mitsotakis government will deliver “scorched earth” is no longer an exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.