Climate change the biggest crisis

“We need an ‘energy revolution’ to address these changes. We must change the way we produce, we consume and we understand energy,” she said on Saturday during an event, at the Presidential Palace, to mark “Earth Hour”.

She said renewable energy sources, coupled with saving energy, are the only effective solution to deal with the catastrophic climate changes and to safeguard actual and viable growth.

“The cheapest energy is the one we do not consume. The state has a responsibility to further strengthen its green policies, in particular those relating to energy matters and renewable energy sources,” she added.

On a different note, an international conference on the side-effects of climate change, hosted by the Minister of the Environment, entitled “Adjusting to Climate”, has heard that the fallout from climatic changes on Cyprus are expected to be particularly serious.

Delegates to the conference, according to a press release, also heard that many sectors of the economy such as agriculture, forestry, tourism, health services and fisheries, depend directly on climate.

Climate change, the meeting heard, will have repercussions on the availability of natural resources including water and soil, which in turn will affect agricultural and industrial production.