AKEL meets environmental organizations – AKEL’s positions on the environment
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 11th May 2016, Nicosia
Today AKEL met the country’s environmental organizations.
During the meeting views were exchanged on the issues that concern the environmental organizations today, such as the issues of the protection of birds and trapping, the issue of the Akamas peninsula, the funding of environmental organizations, the further development of renewable energy and the water issue.
On its part, AKEL once again reiterated its support towards the country’s environmental organizations and its will to develop further cooperation so that many of the problems the environment is facing will find a solution.
Furthermore, it was pointed out that this ongoing dialogue has helped so that AKEL, through its Parliamentary Group, raised and brought environmental issues to the fore in the House of Representatives, such as the issue of the Larnaca Harbour, factories in the Dali- Nisou region and the question of Akamas.
Today’s meeting was attended by the following environmental organizations:
Federation of Environmental Organizations of Cyprus
Larnaca Environmental Movement
BirdLife Association
Green Shield
Environmental Movement
Friends of Akamas
Coordinating Committee against the crocodile park in Psematismenos
AKEL’s positions on the environment
As AKEL-Left-New Forces we believe that the environment plays its own vital role in our quality of life and therefore we need to attach the corresponding importance and seriousness. Through our manifold action, both in Parliament and on a local authority level, as well as more broadly, we have intervened in this direction in various ways.
For AKEL the adoption of a development model that is based on the ecological use of resources to serve the real needs of society, not only for the present but also for future generations, is an urgent need. The concept of sustainable development, as we the Left perceive it, addresses the economy, the welfare state and environmental protection on the same basis.
AKEL’s positions on environmental policy include, inter alia, the following:
- Establishment of an Environment Agency
- Respect for and implementation of all environmental legislation
- Effective combating and adaptation to Climate Change.
- Compliance with society’s demand for a “Cyprus Free from GMO’s”
- The full respect and observance of relative legislation for the Assessment of Environmental Impact of projects, but also Strategic Impact Assessments regarding Plans and Programs is imperative.
- Rational management of water which must be considered as national wealth.
- The protection and conservation of biodiversity, the correct management of Minerals and Water resources, the quality of air, combined with the proper management of emissions of air pollutants and the various waste streams, are crucial for the preservation of the environment, the health and safety of citizens.
- Immediate reorganization, replacement and growing of crops. Promotion of crops which are in line with the climate and the restrictive factors of our island.
- Strengthening of the rational and sustainable use of renewable energy for the benefit of society and mass of citizens, targeting mainly the protection of the natural environment.
- Creation and promotion of environmental protection jobs.
The protection of the environment, apart from everything else, can also contribute towards creating new – significant in numbers – jobs. Jobs will be created, for example, through the elaboration of a comprehensive programme to look after protected areas or protect seas simultaneously with the conservation of the marine ecosystem and wealth. Projects to clean up the environment should be drawn up. Schemes to upgrade the ecosystem, research and activities for maintaining fisheries yields should be prepared, as well as programs for ecological agriculture, surveys and studies for an ecological management of coastal zones, wetlands and the habitat, programmes for the recycling of materials, the cleaning of waste water by natural means and the creation of networks for re-using purified waters.
