The need to protect the environment from climate change was emphasized in his statement by Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of the European Hydrogen Association Hydrogen Europe and former German MEP.

Mr. Chatzimarkakis in his statement points out that the increased number of large fires in Greece demonstrates the immediate need to take measures to protect the climate. The new government has already announced that it intends to give even greater priority to climate protection.

There is no doubt that man-made climate change is responsible for the extreme heat, which has greatly favored forest fires in Europe as well as parts of Africa, the Americas and Asia. Record temperatures in June and July in southern Europe would have been “virtually impossible without human emissions,” writes World Weather Attribution, an academic body that studies the attribution of extreme weather events. Accordingly, recent global heat waves would have been much cooler without climate change.