Greece Plans to Introduce Law to Fight Climate Crisis, Eliminate Carbon Emissions by 2050

Greece's government intends to introduce its first law to fight the climate crisis, which will be a roadmap to completely decarbonize the country's economy by 2050.

The Greek newspaper " Kathemirni " reported that among the many goals outlined, the law stipulates the use of lignin (a plant enzyme) as a biofuel by 2028, the abolition of all oil-fired stoves by 2030, as well as a ban on the sale of vehicles with conventional fuels starting in the same year.

Greece's energy transition at least until 2030 will be supported by natural gas, even though it is a fossil fuel.

Greece aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, as set by the European Union (EU), with targets set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2030 and 80% by 2040. The targets will be revised every five years, starting in 2024.

The annual report of the European Environment Agency on the health effects of the problem of air pollution in Greece stated that more than 13,300 people died as a result of long-term exposure to air pollution in Greece in 2019.

And the European Agency - according to the Greek newspaper Kathemirni - which described air pollution as "the largest environmental health risk in Europe", indicated that compliance with the levels of the World Health Organization's guidelines for fine particles would have resulted in 58% fewer deaths in 2019 in Europe and by 67% in Greece.

Across the European Union, according to 2019 statistics, 307,000 premature deaths were attributed to chronic exposure to fine particulate matter from polluted air, yet this was a 33 percent decrease compared to 2005.