I save - I am autonomous: When the notice for hotels and tourist accommodation

Ο Minister for Energy and the Environment Kostas Skrekas, replied today from the podium of the Parliament to a topical question by SYRIZA MPs, which concerned the new «I save - I autonomy» for the tourism industry.

On when the energy upgrade programme for hotels and tourist accommodation is expected to be announced, the Minister replied that by June is expected to be announced by the ministry, while the aim is that within the next three years, funds will have been leveraged for this purpose to reach 1 billion euros.

The full answer of the Minister of Energy

Good morning, Mr. President, thank you, my colleague, for the question you have submitted. It gives us an opportunity to discuss a very important sector of our country, tourism.

It contributes a great deal to the national economy, but also to Greek society. We hear it from Trikala, where I am elected. Thousands of people in the summer move to tourist areas, where they work, work to provide tourism services, catering services, and in this way their families live decently.

And of course we know very well that the contribution of the tourism sector to the national GDP is very, very high. It exceeds 20%. Tourism is the first employer in Greece and of course it has been very much affected because of the pandemic for obvious reasons.

Of course, this has unfortunately caused a dramatic reduction in visitors, in tourists and this has resulted in adverse economic effects on the sector and on tourism businesses, but also on catering businesses.

But beyond that, the government has taken measures to support all this time until we slowly get back to normal. Certainly all of this that's going on and the effort to keep the viral load in the country low so that we come out of spring with as few cases as possible will help restart tourism again.

But let's go to the very important question you ask. Where is tourism going? Where should tourism go? How should we plan it and what investments should be made.

We have the climate change. Climate change means global warming. It means an increase in global temperature that has consequences. What we're seeing. Weather patterns that are severe, that are destroying agricultural crops. Which have implications in terms of average temperature rise. In Greece we expect in the coming decades, according to scientific research, both an increase in temperature and an increase in the number of heatwave days in the country and of course a decrease in rainfall.

All this also affects tourism. Because on the one hand, of course, we can have a longer duration, with hotter days in the year - and one could say that this can increase the number of tourists. will probably increase in the coming decades the number of good days in the country, so it will increase the season, the tourist season, the summer season.

On the other hand, however, this means that if more tourists come to Greece, it means that we have to have more sources of water, because they have to use more water.

We need more energy to support them. Because we need to cool the rooms in which they live, since the increased temperature means that the rooms now have to be air-conditioned. It also means more consumption of resources, transport, bigger ports. All of this depletes resources, such as the water I mentioned. They produce waste. They produce waste.

So all this, then, we need to plan holistically, lest that moment arrives and we are unprepared. If we want to have, as you rightly said, a sustainable tourism product. If we want to have sustainable tourism in the country.

So what should we do? First, you know that Greece supports Europe's increased environmental ambition, so that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, and by 2050 Europe to be the first climate-neutral continent.

What should we do about it? We need to upgrade our building stock. Buildings consume in Greece about 40% of the energy used.

So you understand that If we upgrade them energy-wise, we will need to spend less energy to air-condition them in summer or heat them in winter. This means reduced energy consumption, hence reduced carbon dioxide emissions. All this we plan to do using money from both the NSRF and the European funds, but also from the Recovery Fund.

Specifically for tourism, a programme has already been announced and we plan to submit a programme by June, which concerns the energy upgrading of very small, small and medium-sized hotels and accommodation in the country.

In this way we will both reduce their environmental footprint and help them to use less energy, which means they will have lower costs.

So, we achieve two things with one action: and reduce costs and reduce the environmental footprint. And in the end we are providing a clearly upgraded product, a tourist product since it protects the environment, so we are adding value and upgrading Greek tourism.

Our goal is promote tourism with a climate-neutral footprint. A green tourism, where this is what is required and this will add value, that is, we will be able to provide higher value-added services once they have this additional advantage.

First of all, I would like to say that the first come, first served that you mentioned, which you also applied in your own term of office, we used it for one reason. Because we wanted to get money into the market very quickly, to get investment going, and that is really the fastest way.

You ask me, is that the fairest way or the most focused way to put it? It is fair. The most focused way to achieve maximum energy savings and maximum energy upgrades with the money we have?;

I will tell you that no, but certainly those who have entered this program and those who have been selected to upgrade their buildings for energy, they all need energy upgrades, because that's what the program calls for.

From there. I will talk to you specifically in answering your questions. We have programmed 100 million from the NSRF and we have included 500 million, half a billion, in the Recovery Fund for energy upgrading and energy efficiency in businesses. Small, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

So, if we consider that the public expenditure is about 600 million, you understand that with the leverage we expect over 1 billion euros in the next 2-3 years to be used for the energy upgrade of very small and medium-sized units.

Which costs are eligible? First, energy upgrading of building infrastructure. That is, the shell to improve the thermal permeability. Heating - cooling systems. Use of renewable energy sources to meet energy needs.

We will support and even finance energy storage systems, which are very important. I told you that Our goal is to make our accommodation and hotel units climate neutral. It will very much increase the added value.

They will be able to offer services that will not affect the climate and the environment and in this way we will be able to ask for more value added services, so more revenue for hoteliers and for local communities and for the national economy.

Also eligible costs. Installation of smart energy management systems. Water saving management. Waste management. I told you that more tourists, more visitors, means more resources, more water. They produce more waste. We have to manage them in a totally environmentally friendly way.

All of this is being taken forward and will be eligible expenditure through the programme which, by June, I repeat, we will announce. Use of smart electric vehicles and other supporting actions, for example environmental studies or inspections, which will have to be done before people can submit their interventions for funding.

Who will be beneficiaries? I told you that we want to reach out to the economic base and the tourism sector, to leverage this money, which means we want a lot of people to be eligible for this program.

Many. So, we will direct money to small, very small and medium-sized enterprises so that this money will really work and in this way we will help not only them, not only the enterprises, but also all the ancillary sectors, accompanying sectors that will support and carry out these constructions.

It works, it's engineering. It's working construction that way, so there will be multiple benefits to local communities from this project. How will eligibility be? Eligibility of course will have the financial criteria, which you know that applies to being funded by European money.

So, it shouldn't be companies in bankruptcy or in liquidation, receivership and so on. There will of course be prioritisation criteria in terms of energy upgrading. Areas where we have introduced the term «grade day».

That is, how many days of the year are very cold or very hot, so we spend a lot of energy cooling or heating respectively, air-conditioning or heating buildings.

This will be a criterion that will also have an important place in this programme, so that we can prioritise and I repeat, we are no longer talking about a first come first served option.

There will be specific evaluation criteria, which we will come up with in cooperation with the Technical Chamber of Greece and in discussion with you, because this will go out for consultation, so that we have absolutely objective, fair and correct criteria to make sure that the money is spent.

So, there will be a prioritisation list. There will be runners-up, and every time we look for and find funding sources, we will be able to put the runners-up into exactly that programme and they will be able to be funded.
And everyone will know when it is their turn and when they are going to be able to use European funds to upgrade their business and their accommodation.”.