ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday (Sep 16) introduced an additional 300 million euros to battle the results of local weather change, acknowledging the size of the disaster going through the nation.
He was talking because the dying toll from the week’s floods that swept throughout the centre of the nation reached 17, together with two Austrian vacationers.
“Greece is going through a conflict in a time of peace,” Mitsotakis mentioned in a speech within the northern metropolis of Thessaloniki.
“Over a two-week interval, we skilled the worst wildfire and the worst floods in our historical past,” he added.
“The local weather disaster is right here and forces us to see every little thing otherwise,” he mentioned.
Reconstructing infrastructure was pressing, mentioned Mitsotakis, asserting a 300-million-euro enhance to a particular fund for tackling the results of local weather change, bringing the entire to 600 million.
The extra cash would come from a rise within the lodging charges charged to vacationers, “particularly within the very costly motels” he added.
The dying toll from Storm Daniel, which swept by way of the central area of Thessaly, rose to 17, Athens Information Company reported Saturday.
DNA lab exams confirmed that two of the our bodies discovered final week belonged to an Austrian couple lacking for greater than per week, mentioned police sources.
LIVESTOCK, CROPS DESTROYED
The floods this week within the Thessaly area attributable to Storm Daniel additionally drowned 110,000 cattle and worn out 1 / 4 of Greece’s annual agricultural manufacturing, say specialists.
And earlier than that, northeastern Greece skilled a devastating blaze that raged for 2 weeks within the Dadia Nationwide Park.
The injury there accounted for nearly half the entire space burned by wildfires in Greece because the begin of the summer time, in response to the European local weather service Copernicus.
Fires throughout Greece this summer time killed at the least 26 folks, most of them migrants trapped in a forest close to the northeastern border with Turkey.
Mitsotakis additionally mentioned there was a necessity for pure catastrophe insurance coverage for each residents and companies.
He introduced a 10-percent low cost on the tax on property insurance coverage and obligatory insurance coverage for medium-sized and enormous companies.
“It’s time to begin a public debate on the necessary insurance coverage of all properties and companies,” he added.
The prime minister additionally addressed criticism from the opposition and different commentators that the federal government had not accomplished sufficient to arrange the nation for the summer time’s excessive climate occasions.
He acknowledged there was confusion about who’s liable for what and a bent to shift blame to others.
However he added: “No matter we misplaced, as a state and as residents, we’ll construct again higher.”
