New tourism campaign focused on sustainability - stats
Kikilias emphasized that all surveys show that travelers are becoming increasingly aware of sustainable tourism, and Greece has taken important steps in this direction.
“Travelers are leading the way, demanding less or zero carbon dioxide emissions. Along with travel safety, this issue will be a top priority for visitors from all over the world in the current tourist season as well as in the next ones,” said the minister, underlining that Greece is leading the interventions aimed at accelerating the green and sustainable transformation of the country’s tourism sector.
Moreover, in related news, renewable energy sources accounted for 47.1% of Greece’s electricity generation in the first ten months of the year, thus surpassing the share of fossil fuels for the first time, according to a report based on Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) data.
“The energy crisis has de facto accelerated the energy transition. Any attempt to move in the opposite direction is harmful for the citizens and the economy,” said Nikos Mantzaris, a policy analyst with Green Tank, the think tank that published the report.
Although until September 2022 fossil fuels were cumulatively ahead in the mix, the high production from renewable energy sources in October, combined with the large reduction in electricity demand in the same month, high gas supply prices and other economic parameters, reversed the trend, leading to a large reduction in the energy produced from fossil gas and lignite, the report states.
From January to October, “green” energy produced 20,186 gigawatt hours compared to 19,589 from lignite and natural gas.
While the share of hydropower in the overall mix fell to 8.2% from 9.7% last year, the share of wind and photovoltaic increased to 38.9% from 32.3% in the same period.
The report noted that electricity demand in October decreased by 9% compared to the same month last year. It was the fourth month in a row to see a decrease in demand compared to the previous year.
In October, Greece managed to cover 100% of national demand for electricity using only renewables for a period of five hours.
