Community action/Greece

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Greece.
News
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Spain wildfires are ‘clear warning’ of climate emergency, minister says, theguardian.com (Aug 14, 2025)
Welcome to the world’s first zero-waste island, positive.news (Aug 21, 2023)
- Greek Island Will Be Mediterranean's First to Run on Renewable Energy, Sep 4, 2018...The Pappas Post
May and June heatwaves killed about 2,700 people in England and Wales, data suggests, theguardian.com (Jul 13, 2026) — Extreme heat led to 440 deaths a day during June peak, say scientists, with climate crisis ramping up temperatures
Amsterdam, along with other major European cities, bans public adverts for meat and fossil fuels [BBC], Daily Alternative (May 22, 2026)
How reindeer herds, nature and Sámi culture can thrive when forests are restored across northern Europe, theconversation.com (May 15, 2026)
As food shocks spread, citizens are showing more leadership than governments, climatechangenews.com (Jul 03, 2026) — People support efforts to protect forests and curb industrial food production, the results of the latest Global Citizens’ Assembly show – but politicians have been slow to act
Trapped by floods and fearing death in the heat: the Australians taking legal action over the climate crisis, theguardian.com (Jun 22, 2026)
‘The sea took everything away’: how Nigeria’s ‘Happy City’ is disappearing beneath the waves, theguardian.com (Jun 18, 2026)
International events
[edit | edit source]Global or International events
July 2026 — Plastic Free July, plasticfreejuly.org
Jul 04, 2026 (Sat) — International Day of Cooperatives (CoopsDay), 1st Saturday of July. The celebration aims to showcase co-operatives’ role in building ‘inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities’, coopsday.coop
Jul 18, 2026 (Sat) — Mandela Day, global celebration 18 July annually, to honour the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. A call to action for individuals, communities, and organisations to take time to reflect on Mandela's values and principles and to make a positive impact in their own communities, mandeladay.com
2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events
Networks and sustainability initiatives
[edit | edit source]- Free and Real, Freedom of Resources for Everyone, Everywhere and Respect, Equality, Awareness and Learning
Each week 3 different short videos from across the world.
Citizens' assembly, Community action/Europe, Localism / ...This week's featured UK videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism
Greece video
[edit | edit source]Cosmolocalism
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The aim of this page is to encourage, recognise and celebrate the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism through Cosmolocalism and cosmolocal learning. Learn about how communities positively impact through different projects and collaborations, via this page and for example any of our resource and topic news pages. Across CASwiki many of our place based pages encourage cosmolocal discovery via additional news steams and regularly updated video selections, our 'Cosmolocal discovery club', Global and UK versions.
Community involvement
[edit | edit source]- Place Identity, collaborative forms for site identity and citizen participation
- SynAthina, platform for community projects
Food activism
[edit | edit source]- www.boroume.gr, network to combat food waste
Between 2000 and 2007 organic farming in Greece increased by 885%, the highest change percentage in the EU. W
Climate action
[edit | edit source]The National Climate Law of Greece was introduced in May 2022 and sets a long-term goal of the gradual transition of Greece to carbon neutrality by the year 2050. The goal is to achieve this in the most environmentally sustainable way possible. The law defines climate neutrality as the balance of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from their sources and their absorptions by carbon sinks. This National Law intervenes with other legislative measures in the country to ensure the goal is meet. This is done by drafting and adopting the national strategy into regional plans. Further by establishing government institutions for a smooth transition towards climate neutrality, focusing on the establishment of a carbon budgeting mechanism. Lastly the goal is to be achieved by creating policies and measures that aim to mitigate emissions from high emission sectors such as building, transport and business.
The immediate objects are set to recede the net anthropogenic greenhouse's emissions by at least:
- 55% by the year 2030
- 80% by the year 2040
Sustainable transport
[edit | edit source]Rapid transit in Greece refers to the systems of rapid transit at present active in Greece.
A "rapid transit", "underground", "subway", "elevated railway", "metro" or "metropolitan railway" system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in tunnels or on elevated rails above street level. Outside urban centers, rapid transit lines may run on grade separated ground level tracks.
In Greece there are several systems that are called "Rapid Transit":
- Athens Metro, an underground and overground railway network serving the city of Athens since 1904;
- Athens Tram, a tram network serving the city of Athens, began electrified service in 1908 and revived in 2001;
- Thessaloniki Metro, an under-underground railway network for Greece's second-largest city;
Trees, woodland and forest
[edit | edit source]Phytogeographically, Greece belongs to the Boreal Kingdom and is shared between the East Mediterranean province of the Mediterranean Region and the Illyrian province of the Circumboreal Region. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature and the European Environment Agency, the territory of Greece can be subdivided into six ecoregions: the Illyrian deciduous forests, Pindus Mountains mixed forests, Balkan mixed forests, Rhodope montane mixed forests, Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests, and Crete Mediterranean forests. It had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 6.6/10, ranking it 70th globally out of 172 countries. In 2024, Greece became the first country in the European Union to ban bottom trawling in marine protected areas what should protect its marine biodiversity.Rare marine species such as the Mediterranean monk seal and the loggerhead sea turtle live in the seas surrounding mainland Greece, while its dense forests are home to the endangered brown bear, the Eurasian lynx, the roe deer, and more. Numerous species have been extirpated from the nation due to human activities such as lions, alpine ibex and European bison.
Maps
[edit | edit source]Map of grassroots groups in Greece, Omikron Project, (link no longer available), "a group of girls and guys trying to show the untold side of Greece's current crisis, and fix the image problems that are damaging our country."
News archive
[edit | edit source]- How could we cope if capitalism failed? Ask 26 Greek factory workers, Aditya Chakrabortty, Jul 18, 2017...The Guardian
- Tilos, Greece: the first island in the Med to run entirely on wind and solar power, Jun 15, 2017...The Guardian
- The Greek Left Takes Stock of the Commons, Mar 1, 2017...bollier.org
Habibi.Works is a FabLab equipped with all the tools for people to unfold their potential and hone their abilities, Oct 31, 2016...blog.p2pfoundation.net
- Athens' unofficial community initiatives offer hope after government failures, Sep 21, 2016...The Guardian
- Building Communities of Commons. A documentary on networks at Sarantaporo, Jul 9, 2016...commonsfest.info
- The New Greek Government Endorses Commons-Based, Peer Production Solutions, February 12, 2015...David Bollier
- "A commons colleague, John Restakis, wrote about this possibility a week or so before the January 25 elections. Now, speaking to the Greek Parliament last week, the new Deputy Prime Minister Gianni Dragasakis explicitly stated that Greece will develop new sorts of bottom-up, commons-based, peer production models for meeting people's needs."
CommonsFest in Greece: A Movement Expands, May 13, 2014...David Bollier
- Commons projects and activism seem to be really hopping in Greece: just last week a collaborative ebook, Πέρααπότοκράτοςκαιτηναγορά: Ηομότιμηπροοπτική, was published in Greece as a free, downloadable pdf file. The ebook presents a vision for a commons-oriented economy and society. Print copies will be available at the end of May, at a price defined by the reader.
- The book cites five key reasons why this vision can succeed, particularly in Greece: 1) the extensive micro-ownership of land and other forms of capital; 2) the existing solidarity networks; 3) the rebirth of the cooperative movement; 4) the urgent need for rebuilding the economy; and 5) the decentralized networks of islands which offer a unique case study for the commoning of energy production and distribution.
- Brave new renewable energy bill introduced by Greek government in parliament, Bellona, May 5, 2010.
- Wildfires encroaching on Athens, citizens tracking developments via the web and social media, Global Voices Online, August 24, 2009.
About Greece
[edit | edit source]Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country of 10 million people on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. With nine regions and thousands of islands, it has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean. The Ionian Sea is west of the mainland, Albania northwest, and North Macedonia and Bulgaria north. Turkey is east both by land and the Aegean Sea. The capital, Athens, is the largest Greek city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras.
External links
Wikipedia: 2009 Mediterranean wildfires
| Authors | Phil Green |
|---|---|
| License | CC-BY-SA-3.0 |
| Cite as | Philralph (2014–2025). "Community action/Greece". Appropedia. Retrieved July 14, 2026. |





