“We are at the vanguard of the effort to deal with the climate crisis, having been chosen to participate in the EU Mission “100 climate neutral and smart cities”, Lazaros Maloutas underlined, during the special event for the presentation of the Climate Contract of the Municipality of Kozani.
Mr. Maloutas, during his presentation, stated that “100 European municipalities, among them six Greek and one from Cyprus, responded to the invitation of the European Commission and after a competitive process, we have been chosen to participate in the European Mission, to pursue the climate neutrality and the digital transformation by 2030, while the goal to achieve climate neutrality across Europe is 2050. To be more effective in this effort, we have all set up the ClimaNet network.”
The event took place on the evening of Thursday, November 30th 2023, in the auditorium of the Koventareios Municipal Library of Kozani. Among them attendees was the member of the European Parliament Maria Spyraki, the General Secretary of Spatial Planning and Urban Environment of the Ministry of Environment, Efthimios Bakoyannis, as well as the members of the Council of the European Commission for the Cities Mission, Maria Vasilakou and Chrysis Nicolaidis. Also, the regional governor of Western Macedonia Giorgos Kasapidis addressed a greeting.
The event was graced with the presence of guests who referred to the goals set by their cities in the context of the Cities Mission. In detail: the Mayor of Ioannina Dimitris Papageorgiou, the Mayor of Trikkaia Nikolaos Sakkas, the Deputy Mayor of E-Governance of the Municipality of Thessaloniki Michalis Koupkas, the Deputy Mayor of Strategic Planning for Tourism, Climate Change, E-Governance & Digital Transformation of the Municipality of Kalamata Nikos Basakidis, the Deputy Mayor of Works, Environment and Municipality Energy Ioanniton Giorgos Arletos.
The newly elected mayor of Kozani, Yiannis Kokkaliaris, accompanied by executives, as well as the current vice-mayors, Noula Toumboulidou, Vassilis Goumas, Miltos Magiridis, Anastasios Rafaelidis, the president of DEYAK, Costas Kytidis, and the municipal councilor Matina Amanatidou were also present.
The presentation of the Climate City Contract was carried out by:
• Panagiotis Glavinis, Dean of the Law School of AUTH
• Antonis Tourlidakis, professor of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Polytechnic School of the University of Western Macedonia
• Nikos Margaritis, scientific associate of EKETA
• Giannis Marmangiolis, vice president of FCNC Financial Advisors
• Vassilis Balachtsis, project manager for CLUBE’s climate contract
The event was coordinated by the co-founder & manager of the Cluster of Bioeconomy and Environment of Western Macedonia, Nikos Davos.
It is worth noting that, in order to raise the awareness of small townspeople on the issue of climate neutrality, a children’s party was held in the central square of Kozani, on the morning of Friday, December 1, 2023. The action, implemented in collaboration with CluBE, was attended by more than 400 students.
