Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hinted on Wednesday that Greece could potentially develop nuclear energy in the future as part of its green transition.
Speaking at a conference titled “Energy Transition Summit: East Med and Southeastern Europe,” organized by the Financial Times and Kathimerini in Athens, he said Greece “should be prepared to join the nuclear alliance.”
“This may come as a shock to some of those listening to us, given that Greece is a country that has no background or no experience in nuclear energy. But when I look at the overall energy developments, I see no way for the world to get to carbon neutrality without nuclear, and I see very interesting developments in nuclear development,” he said in conversation with FT’s climate editor, Emiliya Mychasuk. “I’m not saying we’re going to do anything next day, but at least I want us to be part of the conversation,” he added.
In 2019, the government took the decision to move away from coal as quickly as possible. “Five percent of our electricity production now is coal, and mostly its used as back-up. So we’ve seen a significant increase in the penetration, we’re more than 50% now renewable, they’re ours,” he said.
“Of course, we have ambitious targets to increase the penetration of renewables. We’re slightly biased towards solar, so I would like to see more wind. Off-shore wind is a big potential, and of course, we invest heavily in storage.”
At the same time, Mitsotakis expressed his concern about the escalation of the war between Israel and Iran.
“We are extremely concerned about the escalation of this conflict that doesn’t seem to me to be a clear off-ramp, although we will continue to insist on two fundamental premises: The first is that Iran cannot obtain nuclear weapons, and the second is that the solution can only be found through a diplomatic arrangement that will ensure and guarantee that this cannot happen. Let us hope that there will be no further escalation with adverse consequences in the economy, trade and shipping sectors, where Greece is a leading power worldwide,” he said.
He also said the situation in Gaza is very worrying. “We should not forget about that the fact that in Gaza we have a situation which is truly not just problematic but horrible from a humanitarian point of view. And the fact that we have this conflict now between Israel and Iran should not discourage us from continuously making the point that we need an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and unhindered access by the population of Gaza to significant humanitarian aid that will address the immediate concerts of the population,” he told the conference, adding that Greece will not participate militarily in a possible NATO operation in the Middle East.
“Greece is not going to participate. I mean, this is not an operation that in any way, shape, or form affects Greece, and we have made that very clear. We continue to believe there is no military solution to this conflict,” he said.
“Our obligation is to make sure that our citizens in the broader region are protected. We arranged some evacuations of Greek citizens from Israel very successfully. These are complex operations. I hope we don’t have to do more.”