VZCZCXRO1826
OO RUEHAG RUEHROV
DE RUEHTH #1411/01 2830437
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 090437Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2607
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ EPA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 001411 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT ALSO FOR EUR/ERA FOR BEH/NELSON, EUR/PGI FOR TESSLER, 
OES/PCI FOR FITE/HUDAK, OES/EGC FOR FENDLEY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/08/2018 
TAGS: KGHG EAGR SENV ENRG TRGY GR
SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENTALISTS FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT IN GREECE 
ON MARINE PROTECTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE 
 
REF: A. ATHENS 01350 
     ¶B. ATHENS 00851 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Daniel Speckhard for Reasons 1.4 (b,d) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  As part of the Embassy's initiative to 
expand its dialogue on the environment, the Ambassador hosted 
a September 23 lunch for Greek NGO environmentalists.  A key 
point raised included the challenges of protecting the 
environment against big business interests, such as tourism 
and shipping.  The group discussed positive U.S.-Greek 
efforts on disaster relief in fighting wildfires.  Attendees 
included: Christos Zerefos and Alcibiades Bais, who were 
singled out for their contributions to the Intergovernmental 
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 Nobel 
Peace Prize with former Vice-President Al Gore.  Other 
attendees included representatives from Elliniki Etairia 
(Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage) and 
Hellenic Marine Environment Protection Association(HELMEPA). 
 One invitee, who was unable to atend the luncheon, met 
separately with EconOff and blamed internal Government of 
Greece (GoG) politics for impeding progress on climate 
change.  End Summary. 
 
Fighting the Big Fish 
--------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) As part of outreach efforts to build cooperation with 
NGO environmentalists, the Ambassador hosted a September 23 
luncheon.  Greek NGO participants shared their perspectives 
on how hard it is to protect the environment in Greece, 
particularly when they must compete with powerful business 
interests who have the ear of the GoG.  The head of HELMEPA 
Dimitris Mitsatsos said that tourism operators frequently 
lobbied the GoG on environmental issues.  He further added 
that Greek politicians, who in many cases had their own 
conflicting tourism interests, pressured various NGOs, 
including the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature 
(HSPN), to reduce the number of environmental criteria for 
beaches and marinas.  This contributed to Greece being 
aarded 430 blue flags, an award given to the mos 
ecologically-friendly beaches.  This places Greece at a 
number 2 ranking on a list of forty nations and is in part 
due to the lower criteria to get a blue flag. 
 
Protecting the Little Fish 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (C) Mitsatsos opined that the GoG faced domestic 
political pressures which often superseded environmental 
concerns.  For example, Greenpeace reported that most fish 
species in Greece are severely overfished, despite EU and 
national regulations on minimum sizes and types of commercial 
species.  Mitsatsos added that he was impressed in a recent 
visit to California where they imposed strict regulations for 
businesses operating on the coastline.  Zerefos suggested 
that Greece with 15,400 km of coastline could learn from such 
places and exchange information on how to respond to climate 
changes to protect not only its marine environments, but torespond to natural disasters such as the fires that ravaged 
both Greece and California. 
 
U..-Greek Fire Cooperation 
--------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C)  Despite outside assistance and high-level attention 
following last year's devastating wildfire season, the GoG 
continues to face challenges in coordinating an effective 
response to the wildfire situation.  (Post will report in an 
end-of-fire season septel).  In response to queries by the 
attendees at the lunch, the Ambassador highlighted the solid 
bilateral cooperation on USG-funded traiing and exchanges 
facilitated by USAID and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to 
target the needs of the Greek participants.  He added that 
five Greek firefighters from the Hellenic Fire Service, in 
turn, had recently traveled from Greece to assist California 
in fighting its wildfires during the difficult fire season. 
 
 
Internal Fisticuffs over Climate Change 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C)  Movement by GoG on climate change is likely to remain 
slow, according to the founder of the Center of Renewable 
Energy Sources (CRES) Dimitris Lalas.  He told EconOff in a 
September 29 meeting that internal Greek politics were to 
blame for Greece's censure in May by the EU for failing to 
maintain a proper national system to record greenhouse gas 
 
ATHENS 00001411  002 OF 002 
 
 
emissions, key to compliance with the Kyoto Protocol.  Lalas 
explained that his contract to manage the national inventory 
of emissions ended in April 2007.  He blamed the GoG for 
failing to appoint "five warm bodies" to take over the 
national inventory.  As a result, Greece was cited in breach 
of its Kyoto Protocol requirements in April 2008.  Lalas 
stressed that party politics and bureaucracy were to blame 
for a situation that could easily have been avoided. 
 
¶6.  (C) According to Lalas, Minister of Environment and 
Public Works Giorgos Souflias was given the incorrect 
information to release to the public by his Deputy Minister 
Stavros Kalogiannis in an attempt to hide any wrong-doing by 
the present party in power on climate change.  Further, Lalas 
believes that the wrong measurements were issued to shift 
blame onto the previous party in power.  In spite of the 
current political scandals weakening the GoG, Lalas notes 
that Souflias continues to hold a significant amount of power 
in Karamanlis' Cabinet and remains one of his key advisors. 
 
Comment 
-------- 
 
¶7.  (C) Although the GoG is slow to move on environmental 
issues, it is aware that it needs to meet EU and Kyoto 
Protocol obligations.  We are seeing a GoG that is focused on 
renewables with pending legislation to ease licensing 
procedures and provide new financial incentives for 
investors; however, given Greece's current political climate, 
it is likely that concrete action on the environment will be 
further delayed.  Post will continue to engage with the GoG 
and the NGO community as part of its ongoing efforts to 
expand dialogue on environmental issues.  End Comment. 
SPECKHARD