AKEL on World Environment Day
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 4th June 2016, Nicosia
This year’s World Environment Day doesn’t find the planet in a better condition than in previous years, despite the achievement of an agreement on climate change at the United Nations Conference.
Today more than ever before, the environment is still targeted as a source of huge pool of unbridled exploitation of natural resources, as a space for dumping and disposing waste and as another sector for generating profits, which have resulted in the major problems facing the planet continuously worsening. In times of economic crisis, the danger of further environmental degradation is evident, given that the environment and its consequences remain at the bottom of the political agenda.
The size and amount of environmental problems around the world affects us all.
AKEL believes that environmental policy must primarily include the adoption of new economic and social policies for development. These policies should focus on protecting the possibilities of the ecosystem and natural resources through the elaboration of an overall strategy for sustainable development.
In the case of Cyprus, the only way out of the crisis for a truly sustainable and autonomous development is through the promotion and utilization of the natural wealth in all its dimensions. This is AKEL’s position.
Furthermore AKEL considers that the struggle for international peace and disarmament must be intensified, with the goal of avoiding wars.
At the same time, the struggle to solve the Cyprus problem, which will reunite our common country, must continue. This is a development which represents a prerequisite for the union of our country’s natural environment.
The destruction of the environment in Cyprus, both in urban and rural areas has assumed big dimensions. The popular strata and working people are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and are called upon to contribute more than the real culprits of environmental problems.
For that reason the struggle for a solution to the environmental problem is directly linked to the social struggle for a fairer and more humane society.
In view of World Environment Day, the Environment Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL is organizing an relative event and an eco-photo exhibition entitled “A truth that disturbs” on Monday, 6th June at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Market of Palouriotissa.
