The environment is in danger, along with the life on the planet

Action now before it’s too late

Statement of the Environment Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL on International Environment Day

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 5 June 2018, Nicosia

The 5^th June, which the United Nations has established as International Environment Day, unfortunately isn’t a day of celebration, but reflection instead. It is a day of reflection because climate change is already underway. There isn’t any more time left. Humanity must act and indeed act effectively.

Natural catastrophes on a global level have cost the lives of thousands of people and causing enormous material damage.

In Cyprus, the Anastasiades-DISY government, persisting in the implementation of austerity policies, does not allocate the necessary financial resources to protect the environment. At the same time, it either doesn’t implement European policies for the protection of the environment or it violates them by trying to serve big interests.

AKEL stresses that environmental disaster cannot leave anyone indifferent. We must take very seriously into account the challenges our country is facing and realize the extremely difficult position it will find itself in the coming decades. The dramatic climate changes and increasing frequency of extreme weather phenomena, the increase in global warming and rise in sea levels and so many other things that are happening every day around us, are constantly sending their own danger signals. In an island like ours, these phenomena will be even more pronounced, since the Mediterranean region belongs to areas of the planet that are predicted to be most adversely affected by climate change.

Cyprus can cope only if it implements a two-pillar policy of change and adaptation, an approach that must be pursued on an international level. Only if the environmental parameters and interests of the peoples are put over and above the interests of capital, with the simultaneous implementation of a programme to adapt to climate change, can we talk about real sustainable development and a viable future.

The future demands courage, knowledge, vision and a deep sense of responsibility. The future of the planet and the coming generations is the top priority issue and mustn’t be tackled with the same policies that created the problem.

The environment is in danger, along with life on the planet. Act now before it’s too late.