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Appropriately designed and implemented climate mitigation actions have multiple co-benefits (yet some trade-offs cannot be excluded) that result in substantial social and economic value beyond their direct impact on reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions. Despite their wider acknowledgement by the research community, decision makers and the public have incomplete information on these multiple effects. This paper has a twofold objective: First, through analytical bottom-up approaches, it assesses, in quantitative terms, the macroeconomic effects and the public health benefits attributed to a variety of mitigation actions under consideration in the context of the Greek Energy and Climate Plan. Second, it investigates, through a social survey, how citizens perceive climate change and value these multiple impacts of mitigation actions, and to what extent they are willing to pay for them and support the adoption of policy measures aiming at the green transition of the Greek economy. We show that mitigation actions bring about significant health benefits, particularly in cities, and generate significant positive macroeconomic effects, particularly if mitigation actions focus on the decarbonization of the building sector and on the exploitation of local renewable sources. We also argue that most people do not realize that climate mitigation actions can have wider benefits for society, such as tackling energy poverty, improving public health, and creating new jobs. Unwillingness to pay tends to be the prominent attitude. People who are more reluctant to cover a part of the cost of environmental protection are less likely to perceive that climate change is one of the main challenges at global and national level and support the adoption of climate mitigation policies. In this context, the national strategy for climate change should focus on effectively informing and engaging the public in climate mitigation strategies, strengthening the public trust in government institutions, promoting mutually acceptable solutions with the local communities, and providing incentives for changing citizens' behavior towards climate-related actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study performs a model-based multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for supporting policy makers in Greece, in designing energy-efficiency policies through the selection of the most effective measures, towards sustainable development. The impact assessment of energy-efficiency measures is based on their macroeconomic, environmental and social implications. Such an evaluation of a quite large number of energy-efficiency measures, regarding both the building and the transport sector and based also on the combination of PROMETHEE and SIMOS methods while performing a sensitivity analysis, is not available in the international literature. The analysis deploys three energy-efficiency co-benefits, derived from energy models and input-output analysis, as well as the cost-effectiveness and the technical feasibility of each measure. This combination of MCDA with input-output analysis is another innovation of the study. The final ranking revealed that, generally, measures in buildings are more effective than those in transportation, while significant differentiations between residential and commercial buildings emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is expected to significantly affect countries in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, causing higher-than-average temperature increases, considerable reductions in rainfall and water runoff, and extreme events such as heatwaves. These pose severe threats to local energy systems, requiring a reliable and quantitative risk analysis. A methodological approach is thus proposed which covers both energy supply and demand, utilizing the latest climate projections under different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios and an appropriate scale for each energy form. For energy supply technologies, risks are assessed through statistical regression models and/or mathematical equations correlating climatic parameters with energy productivity. To analyze climate risks for energy demand, bottom–up models were developed, integrating both behavioral and policy aspects which are often considered in a very limited way. The results show that climate change will mainly affect electricity generation from hydroelectric and thermal power plants, with variations depending on the plants' locations and uncertainties associated with precipitation and runoff changes. The climate risks for solar and wind energy were found to be low. Energy consumption will also be affected, but the range of risks depends on the ambition and the effectiveness of measures for upgrading the thermal performance of buildings and the intensity of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have demonstrated the tourism industry to be especially sensitive to weather and climate variability. Snow-related tourism, being largely dependent on climatic resources, is particularly affected by climate change. Our study provides a new index to reflect the climatic suitability of a given destination for snow-related tourism activities, focusing on resorts with usually limited snowfall. The proposed Skiing Utility Index (SUI) is based purely on the weather preferences of skiers, extracted by questionnaires distributed at the Parnassos ski center (Greece). The index incorporates four different weather variables considered to be the most influential for this type of tourism. The ideal temperature for skiing was found to be close to 0 °C, the ideal wind speed between 0–3.3 m/s, the ideal cloud cover between 0–25% and the snowfall duration between 1–2 h, with the latter found to be the most important variable for skiing. For each climatic variable, a mean utility score profile was developed from all respondents. Following, a utility function was fitted via linear regression to the above-mentioned utility score. All four utility functions were aggregated into one total SUI score. When combined with climate projections, the SUI can support the assessment of climate change risks for snow-related tourism destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although climate change risks have been studied for a number of economic sectors, banking has received relatively little attention. The paper proposes a methodology and an associated decision-support tool for quantifying, in monetary terms, the risks for banks from the exposure of their loan recipients and/or applicants to climate change. The framework and tool are applied to a case study based on input from a Greek bank; results indicate that climate change risks for banks are considerable, and thus decision makers need to estimate their magnitude and possibly consider these within the credit management process, and in environmental planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several climate indices have been developed to analyze the relationship between climatic variables and tourist comfort at different destinations, although, none of the indices applied so far in cities have been informed by empirical data collected exclusively at urban tourist destinations. The present paper aims to cover this gap by developing an "Urban Climate Comfort Index" (UCCI) that integrates critical climate variables for urban tourism and is informed by empirical data from an in-situ survey conducted in southern Europe, namely, in close proximity to the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece. The survey provided input on the ideal and unacceptable climatic conditions as perceived by urban tourists and on the relevant weight of the selected climatic parameters. Tourist preferences were then translated into a numerical scale by assigning utility scores of 0% and 100% to the "unacceptable" and "ideal" values while using a linear change for the intermediate values. Hence, a best-fitting utility function for each climatic variable was created, and all utility functions were then aggregated through their relative weights to form the UCCI index. The new index can be applied to other similar urban tourist destinations and assist impact assessment studies and tourism management measures, including climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of COVID-19 have had devasting effects on both health and economies in 2020. At the same time, the lockdown and the downturn of economic activity resulted in a decrease in energy consumption and an accompanying reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In this article, a comparison with the temperature adjustment of energy use is presented for the main carriers of electricity, natural gas, and oil products in the residential, tertiary, industry, and transport (road transport, domestic aviation, and navigation) sectors in 2020 against the previous two years in Greece, along with the corresponding emissions. As the comparison covers the entire year, both COVID peaks in the March–April and November–December periods and the corresponding lockdown effects as well as seasonal variations are included. The analysis shows a reduction, adjusted for temperature, of 3528 GWh in electricity and 10,286 GWh in transport, and an increase of 1916 GWh in heating and other final uses for a net 11,898 GWh decrease and a resulting emissions reduction of 3.48 MtCO2eq (1.29 MtCO2eq in electricity, 2.69 MtCO2eq in transport, and an increase of 0.54 MtCO2eq in heating), or 4.1%, from total national emissions in 2019. The effect is, to a considerable extent, the result of drastic tourist activity contraction, which is starkly evident in the electricity consumption in the Aegean islands. The comparison between the two lockdown periods brings out clear differences, with the reduction in the second one being considerably smaller as the population reverted, to a large extent, to pre-COVID behavior, which implies that no permanent gains from the COVID long-term impact toward decarbonization should be expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]