Greek News Agenda

Lisa Badum is a German politician and climate policy spokeswoman for the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen party at the Bundestag. This summer, along with vice-president of Bundenstag and ex Green Party leader Claudia Roth, she launched an initiative of solidarity for people affected by the devastating fires in Attica. Since October 2016 she is the district chairwoman of Die Grünen in Upper Franconia and in September 2017 she was elected to the 19th German Bundestag with Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. Her work focuses on gender equality and energy policy, in particular the promotion of renewable energy. She is a member of the Environment Committee and of the Greek-German parliamentary group in Bundestag. Badum has also studied in Thessaloniki and is fluent in Greek.

Lisa Badum spoke with Greek News Agenda* on the environmental impact of climate change, what can be done on a EU and regional/local level, the initiative she started to help those affected by the fires in Attica, how Germans view Greece, and finally, on her own relationship with Greece.

In the aftermath of the fires in Greece, Sweden and Portugal, climate change is the forefront of public debate in Europe, as evidenced by covers in major publications as Der Spiegel and The Economist. Would you care to comment on that?

Obviously, this year we deal with the hottest spring/early summer (April to July) ever recorded in human history. But also during the last years we are seeing that extremely hot and dry weather is not an exceptional occurrence any more, even in Central Europe. Climate change means that extreme weather phenomena are becoming more and more probable. That concerns not just heat, but extreme rainfalls also. Some people believe that heavy rains help with the heat; it is a paradox, but actually they don’t: as rainfalls occur more and more and in times of the year when the soil is not prepared to absorb the rain, we have more floods. So Climate Change means we have more often hot and dry weather and at the same time more heavy rains, all with unpredictable consequences. […]

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