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Law 4936/22 on Climate Change: Lack of numbers and clear targets

The New Law 4936/2022 passed by the Parliament a month ago is an event that is initially welcomed. But then it should also be criticized for the generality of its intentions and the reference to more detailed policies to be developed in the future. One would expect more detail, at least on the country's general quantitative targets.


We now know exactly what the problem is and what is at stake in mitigating climate change: a reduction of 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases worldwide. Therefore, we must have, in the form of a law, Greece's general objective, but broken down into sectors, actions, sub-objectives and quantitative indicators on these. So that we can put our thoughts and actions in order, so that we do not miss the big picture and talk about the small things.


An actual example



Approximately a quarter of human activity with an impact on the environment and the climate crisis comes from a sector so vital to human society. Food!

In total, the food, agriculture and land use sectors contribute 24 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. We know with absolute certainty and numbers that agricultural activity and resource exploitation for the food industry is transforming much of the land and disrupting ecosystems. Based on the historical evolution of agricultural land holdings, if nothing changes, it is projected that, to maintain the present yield of agriculture, total land area (use) will increase from 148 million hectares to 327 to 400 million hectares by 2035.


One available solution to address the issue is 'conservation agriculture', where more effective soil fertility practices (with less harmful herbicides) are applied in response to increasing consumer demand for reducing harmful substances. Conservation agriculture is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 8.1 to 12.8 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent based on average carbon sequestration rates ranging from 0.25 to 0.78 tons of carbon per hectare per year, depending on the region. That is 12 out of 51 gigatons (billion tons), or 24% from conservation agriculture actions.


The above was written as an example of how to think and plan around one (and only one!) sector that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural production. There are hundreds of other examples of actions and solutions in various sectors, sub-sectors and activities such as building and infrastructure construction, industry, energy production, transport, and so on.


At E-ON INTEGRATION, we are closely following developments and our goal is to accurately quantify all issues, such as risks, opportunities and metrics, arising from the energy and climate crisis.

As part of our work we review the available technologies, assess the economic impact of these risks/opportunities and provide a clear description of the resilience of the business model and strategy of the stakeholder based on the climate scenarios. Our entire methodology is fully based on an IT tool, which among other things uses data from external databases, which we name "Climate Change Risk Assessment".


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