The Ptolemaida lignite plant. Andrea Bonetti / WWF Greece. All rights reserved. The Greek government and its creditors are once more involved in behind-closed-doors negotiations, busily debating Greece’s fate after the end of the 3rd Adjustment Programme (August 20). Far from the spotlight and opaque Eurogroup negotiations, Greece’s economy, society and – least mentioned in international media – environment are hanging in the balance.
Ten years into Greece’s Great Depression, the three successive Adjustment Programmes have not led to a new, sustainable, development model. Rather they have economically resulted in a huge debt overhang, dramatically undermined social development and jeopardized Greece’s natural wealth.
To take but three examples: environmental and employment regulations and legislation have been steadily undermined in the name of a putative “competitiveness”. Creditors’ conditionality is locking Greece into dirty energy production for decades to come. And the current dash-for-oil-and-gas is threatening regions of unique ecological wealth, whose economies heavily rely on healthy ecosystems. The current dash-for-oil-and-gas is threatening regions of unique ecological wealth, whose economies heavily rely on healthy ecosystems.
