Ensuring green sustainability for future generations is key for everyone’s progress, said State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis at the 1st Green Deal Greece conference on Tuesday.

The European Commission’s “European Green Deal” is an “agreement that will change the mentality of European citizens, and above all it will change the natural environment during climate change, which we all experience every day with rising temperatures and forest fires,” he underlined. In this common goal of Europeans, “Greece is at the forefront,” he added.

For the first time, three separate operational programs in the next Partnership Agreement (ESPA) package available to Greece are related to the environment, he highlighted.

“One for environmental protection and sustainable development, one for civil protection authorities that strive for the preservation of the natural environment, and one for the fair transition to renewable energy sources.”

From a budgetary point of view, “all this is summed up at 72 billion euros,” he said, “of which it is estimated that about €24 billion will be channeled directly or indirectly to green public investment projects, and we hope that this amount will be doubled by leverage via private capital.”

This article was previously published at ekathimerini.com.