With major headlines hitting the wires of the economic difficulties being faced by Greece, the country’s Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Climate Change has announced that it will use €5.5 billion toward environment and energy investments.
The funding will come from the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) for EU funds and other financing outlets indicating the government’s decision to enforce green development to overcome the current financial crisis tearing through the Mediterranean country.
According to the Ministry’s announcement, the bulk of these subsidies will be used to promote “green development, biodiversity as well as energy efficiency” with the main goal of utilizing all available external funding. Greece is a net importer of electrical energy, but is attempting to become an exporter of renewable energy with interests coming from neighbors such as Italy. The country is also strategically located to export clean energy to countries in the Balkans and North Africa.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Greece has said that the country’s economic output in 2010 will fall by 2% – far worse than the government’s prediction of between 1.2% and 1.7%. "The Greek economy has fallen into a vicious circle with only one way out: the drastic reduction of the deficit and debt," the bank’s annual monetary policy report said.
Subscribe to Alternative Energy