President pledges ‘swift transition into a green economy’

President Nicos Anastasiades and agriculture minister Costas Kadis visited recycling unit Cyprus Environmental Industries on Wednesday in light of the government’s recently announced recovery and resilience plan.

The scheme will be funded through €1.2bn from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility €1.8bn from the Policy Coherence Fund, and €1.4bn from private investment or private-public partnerships.

“It is a real pleasure to be visiting one of our oldest recycling units,” the president said, explaining that the purpose of the visit was to “place emphasis on the plan’s second pillar,” which focuses on reforms and investments linked to environmental management.

“This will provide the push we need for a swift transition into a green economy,” he said.

According to Anastasiades, environmental management projects will take €447m from the Recovery and Resilience Facility fund and €733m from the Policy Coherence Fund. “To achieve what we call a green economy, we will spend over a billion euros in total over the next five years,” he said.

He also explained that the money will go into eight reforms and 22 business development actions including subsidies and metal recycling which will be presented to the public on Monday.

“We will pay special attention to this matter, just like with ‘pay as you throw’, as it will contribute significantly to the viability of our recycling industry while saving resources as well as public and private money,” he continued.

Anastasiades added that “more efficient recycling means less rubbish will go to the tip, limiting pollution while also saving the government money, as we would have to pay less emissions fines to the EU”.

“I believe we will have the support of all political entities so we can achieve not only EU-wide goals, but goals specific to Cyprus,” he added.

Lastly, addressing the plant managers he said that “the government is by your side,” adding that for example, as an environmentalist Kadis has every reason to support the policies and want them to work.

“Both our goal and that of Europe’s is to do our best, and this can only be achieved with the help of our recycling industry,” he concluded.