Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the Columbia Global Center Athens event entitled “The Power of AI: Accelerating Climate Change or Driving Solutions?”, held at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
In his address, the Prime Minister stated:
Thank you, Kosti, for your kind words. First of all, let me express how happy I am to be joining today’s fascinating event. I’m also particularly happy about the fact that Colombia has decided to establish a global centre in Greece, in Athens. I remember having discussions with my wife, who’s a graduate of SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs), really pushing for the idea of making this global centre a reality.
I do remember a visit that was organised by Niki Kerameus, then Minister of Education, when a number of very important American universities came to Greece to discover what the Greek academic scene actually had to offer in terms of partnerships and collaborations.
I’m so happy that one of the positive results of this opening up of Greece to the world of academia has been the creation of the Columbia Centre as a space for dialogue, but also for transfer of know-how and knowledge that can really be applied in solving real problems that we as policymakers address.
As I I was listening through Pierre’s presentation, I thought about how relevant and how topical this discussion actually is. It is very interesting that we are on October first, and as we speak, we are fighting a very complicated wildfire in Peloponnisos.
It is extremely unusual for us to have a wildfire so late in the season. But this is only one indication of the fact that the climate is changing and we are forced to constantly improve our reaction in order to be more effective in addressing these extreme weather events.
We talk a lot about mitigation and about bringing down global emissions. Of course, Europe is at the forefront of achieving climate neutrality. If you ask me, I’m absolutely confident that the collective wisdom of humanity and the colossal amounts of public and private money invested in addressing climate change will eventually solve the problem of carbon neutrality. But of course, there is still a lot of time to get from where we are today to a world of zero emissions.
That is why I have an obligation as Prime Minister not just to think in terms of mitigation initiatives. Greece has done its part because we have actually reduced our emissions more than most European countries. We produce more than 50% of our electricity now from renewables.
Focusing on adaptation and addressing these climate events needs to become a priority not only for Greece, but also for the European Union.
There is a fundamental imbalance in terms of the funds that we have committed towards addressing the mitigation problem, bringing down CO₂ emissions, and the money that is available to address these extreme weather events and their devastating consequences. I’m personally lobbying also within the European Union to make sure that we address this fundamental imbalance.
Of course, technology can be transformative in helping us manage these events. I am fascinated by what you said and about the interaction we also have with various companies in terms of having more advanced weather prediction events, working with some of the big tech companies in order to have detailed flood management and flood prediction models, predicting what a wildfire could do, knowing, better understanding the landscape, the weather, and how it will move and how it will behave.
There’s no doubt that AI is already offering us incredibly valuable solutions in terms of actually addressing these problems on the field. We need to up our game.
Greece is investing more than €2 billion in civil protection infrastructure. And this is not just about planes or about fire trucks, it’s also about technology. That is why I’m so fascinated by these partnerships that will enable our services to be really at the forefront of what technology has to offer.
And I do think, Kosti, that there is a potential here, Columbia being a university that probably has the largest number of scientists and professors involved in earth sciences and in climate-related research, to structure this partnership in a more organised manner where we will set up some priorities and we could even test new ideas or new technology in the field. This is going to be absolutely critical for what we do in the future.
I don’t want to take up too much of your time because I’m very passionate about this topic, but you didn’t come here to listen to me. Let me thank you again for what Colombia is doing in Greece. Let me offer again the support of the Greek government.
We are opening up our public university system to the world. We want to try to bring leading institutions to Greece in various formats. The Columbia Centre, the Global Centre, is a very good example of a leading university accepting this challenge and establishing this presence in Greece.
Again, looking forward to participating in other such very interesting events. Thank you very much.
