We are paying the cost of the government’s failure on energy issues

 

12 December 2022, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The mobilisations by the working people in the Cyprus Electricity Authority (AHK) have taken place as a reaction to the government’s organised undermining of the semi-governmental Authority for years. The DISY government has deliberately left AHK both understaffed, but also out of the renewable energy projects so as to favour powerful private big businessmen in the sector. At the same time, while it itself has the responsibility of running the public organisation of AHK, it is shifting the responsibility on AHK’s Board.

This is part of the critical and marginal phase in which our country’s energy security is in. Today we are paying the consequences for the government’s tragic and colossal failure over a whole decade. The facts are there for all to see:

• To date, the only natural gas deposit in Cyprus that has been identified and confirmed is that of the ‘Aphrodite’ deposit by the Christofias government, but which was left untapped by the DISY government.
• The four attempts by the DISY government to bring in natural gas for the generation of electricity have failed miserably.
• The timetables for the country’s energy infrastructures were never met and were postponed again and again.
• The penetration of Renewable Energy Sources in our country’s energy mix has also failed.

AKEL’s warnings and proposals on energy were provocatively ignored by the outgoing government. Cyprus, its economy and society are paying the price. As a result, this has led to energy insecurity and energy poverty, as well as to very expensive electricity and the payment of hundreds of millions of euros in fines for pollutants.

In the face of this failure, there is the proposal outlined in Andreas Mavroyiannis’ programme, with nine energy pillars that guarantee the country’s energy security, with an environmental and social dimension.