Sustainable development

The pandemic could push as many as 32 million people in the world's least developed countries into extreme poverty, a new UN report has said. Without international action, global development goals will be missed.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) are co-funding a sustainable assessment program for the tourism destinations of Corfu and Iraklio, with the essential participation of the local authorities.

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said that Romania will benefit from European funding estimated at approximately 6 billion euros, through the Modernization Fund, in the period 2021-2030, and the funds will be allocated, in particular, to investments in cogeneration production capacities and renewable green energy.

Environment Minister Kostis Hatzidakis has decided to cut the red tape on renewal energy projects by dispensing some of them from environmental impact assessments and simplifying the approval procedures for others.

The aim of these decisions is to reduce the time from the submission of a plan to implement a renewable energy project to its approval to two years.

The Municipality of Athens has given the green light for electric vehicles, cars and scooters to enter the planned pedestrianized networks in the so-called Commercial Triangle of Athens and the iconic area of Plaka, where the use of private cars will be prohibited - with exceptions.

The Romanian government wants to give a strong signal of support to research and innovation by adopting a memorandum for the establishment of the ROHYDROHUB, Romanian Hydrogen and New Energy Technologies Hub, as research in the use of hydrogen as an energy source is a component worth encouraging, according to government's Secretary General Antonel Tanase.

The much-beleaguered attempt to free up more public space in the downtown Athens area has come back to the fore at a particularly auspicious time. 

Jeffrey Sachs is an eminent American economist and professor of sustainable development at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He had for many years been director of Columbia's Earth Institute, while he's served as special adviser for sustainable development to the last three secretary-generals of the United Nations.

Turkey added 687 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity to reach 8,056 MW in total wind capacity in 2019, according to the Turkish Wind Energy Association's (TUREB) report released on March 25.

According to the data, wind energy provided about 8 million Turkish homes with electricity last year.

Experts are urging Greek authorities to suspend the development of new wind parks on Natura-protected sites, arguing that planned facilities outside environmentally sensitive areas are more than adequate for Greece to meet its targets.