Greece Eyes Sustainable Islands in Drive to Meet Climate Goal

(Bloomberg) -- Greece wants to make all of its inhabited islands ecologically friendly as the country pushes to meet a target of cutting harmful emissions at least 55% by 2030. 

A nationwide campaign dubbed “GR-eco Islands” will kick off in Chalki, a small island near Rhodes in the eastern Aegean. Chalki will get its electric power entirely from a new 1 MW solar installation, the Athens-based Energy Ministry said. The island will also be provided with a small fleet of electric vehicles and equipped with charging stations. 

“This national initiative starts here in Chalki and will be extended to many more islands in a first phase and eventually to all islands,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at an event Friday on the island. 

Island residents and the local municipality are expected to see electricity bills fall by a combined 200,000 euros ($230,440) a year, while carbon dioxide emissions are expected to drop by around 1,800 metric tons.  

Mitsotakis’s administration this week approved the country’s first climate law, which introduces measures to help offset climate change. Athens is also targeting production of 2 gigawatts of power from offshore wind by 2029 or 2030.

Greece earlier this year was hit by a series of severe wildfires and floods, which the government partly attributed to global warming effects. 

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