Greece’s ‘invisible’ green crisis

EU environmental policy is one of the casualties of Greece’s austerity drive.

Behind the depressingly familiar street demonstrations beamed almost nightly from Greece are other crises that are largely unreported and unnoticed.

One of these ‘invisible’ crises is environmental. Almost a quarter of a century of advances in environmental regulation made by Greece as a member of the EU are now being weakened and rolled back. Crisis-management policies are being adopted with intended short-term economic ‘wins’ but with little regard for sustainability and for environmental issues.

As a member of the troika overseeing Greece’s austerity-based reforms (together with the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank), can the European Commission simultaneously act as custodian of the EU treaties while at the same time advocating policies that seriously undermine their implementation?

A case in point is the pioneering ‘Green Fund’ established by the Greek government in 2010 with the aim of promoting nature conservation and investments related to climate change. The fund swiftly accumulated over €1 billion. But the fund was effectively dissolved only months after its creation; 95% of the fund can now freely be absorbed by the state budget in order to help cover the national debt.

This shifting of resources away from the environment also stifles the potential for green businesses and jobs.

Environmental protection regulations are now being axed – this, at a time when large-scale infrastructure investments are being promoted without being subject to transparent, legally unimpeachable screening and to proper environmental impact assessments. One example is a draft law currently being discussed in parliament that would exempt all waste-treatment infrastructure works from proper environmental-impact assessment procedures on grounds of “the general public interest”.

What have long been designated as ‘illegal’ constructions are now being retrospectively ‘legalised’ through payment of fines, again aimed at covering the soaring debt. With this measure, not only is immunity granted to illegal practices, but there is a clear risk of undermining important prot-ected areas. The island of Zakynthos, the Mesolonghi lagoon and even Mount Olympus are among the protected areas that are particularly at risk.

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This trajectory is economic folly. First, cutting back on environmental-protection regulations may bring some short-term relief but will ultimately deter new investment. One recent example of a project approved despite its obvious impact on the protected habitat of an EU priority species is a large tourist resort on the island of Milos.

Second, the huge natural capital of countries such as Greece is an important source of wealth that is not captured in conventional economic accounting. Sacrificing environmental regulations in the name of austerity is poor economics.

Since tourism accounts for 18% of Greece’s gross domestic product, it simply does not make business sense to put at risk one of the main competitive advantages and ‘products’ of this country – its stunning landscapes, and the wealth and diversity of nature spread across its peninsula, its islands and its marine environment.

Third, different economic development pathways based on ‘green economy’ principles and outcomes are rapidly becoming the new orthodoxy. Why send Greece back to the economic Dark Ages through imposed ‘environmental austerity’ at a time when investing in resource stewardship is increasingly seen as giving countries a competitive edge?

This is not to argue that Greece’s economy does not need adjustment. But those who prescribe the medicine of austerity must be accountable for the longer-term consequences of their actions on the environment – a policy area that few understand and even fewer recognise properly in their national accounts.

Demetres Karavellas is the director of WWF Greece.