The Alternate Minister of National Defence Panagiotis Rigas made an address on Tuesday 30 October 2018, at the Conference hosted by the Hellenic National Meteorological Service at the Armed Forces Officers Club, titled “A Pan-European Framework for Strengthening Critical Infrastructure Resilience to Climate Change”.

The Alternate Minister’s address is the following:

“I am glad that I have the opportunity to attend a conference with three distinct features: it is interesting, critical and current.

So, I would like to congratulate the Hellenic National Meteorological Service, the National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” and the Center for Security Studies for the initiative of co-hosting this Conference.

This is an interesting event because the scientists, the experts and the executives who will present to us their studies’ findings, are the competent individuals who can make all of us here today, companions towards the common goal of Critical Infrastructure Protection.

It is a critical event because that is the nature of the Critical Infrastructure.

The electric energy transport and distribution networks, the water supply network, the hospitals, the computer centres, the mobile and landline telephony networks, the military units, the airport systems, the banks infrastructures, these are all Critical Infrastructure.

They have a key role and their regular function constitutes a basic condition for health, financial regularity, security, social cohesion and the prosperity of the state and its citizens, in general.

Finally, it is current because Climate Change has taken a place among the possible dangers against the security of Critical Infrastructure, for some time now, and that is a fact admitted by almost everyone.

Despite the repeated warnings of the scientific community’s majority in the last 50 years and since the interception measures which humanity has taken have been proven insufficient, Climate Change has begun to leave concrete evidence in its wake.

Every time an extreme natural phenomenon has occurred in densely populated urban centres, the cost in human lives as well as material damages is immense. 

Climate Change and the observed rising temperature throughout Europe must be researched further and be dealt with on time.

The shaping condition obligates us to be constantly on alert and to monitor the effects, as well as constantly improve the resilience of Critical Infrastructure.

So as not to have grave consequences to Critical Infrastructure, it is necessary to immediately increase the number of countries which will have a strategy to decrease dangers with a simultaneous enhancement of international collaboration. The goal is for the above to have been conducted by 2030.

Another necessity is the establishment of timely warning and information systems for the potential dangers.

Our country, although later than other European states, has begun in the last three years to make steady steps towards the establishment of an institutional framework, which will shield our country against Climate Change.

We ought to immediately head towards the same direction concerning the shielding and the constant improvement of the planning and resilience limits of the Critical Infrastructure.

We do not have the luxury of risking a future disaster, we ought to be ready to effectively respond whenever necessary, now or in the future, to the new conditions.

In this context, your current effort increases in importance and I believe that it is essential to repeat such initiatives more frequently in the future.

I wish you success in your proceedings”.