Shipping holds a leading role in the increasing use of alternative renewable energy sources, in particular natural gas, Valerie Ducrot, Executive Director of the World Energy Council (WEC) Global Gas Centre, noted during an exclusive interview with Maritimes.gr.

(left) Mrs Valerie Ducrot, Mr. Markos Kantzios

In particular Greek maritime industry can and should lead the way in this change, if we wish to save our seas and the global environment, she said.

  

Do you believe that it is time that Shipping and in general the transport sector should turn towards the use of natural gas?

I would say that Greece should be the example in the world in the shipping industry to move from old fuels to new natural gas fuels. You have sea and sun everywhere, you have people who want to spend their holidays in Greece, and you have to push the industry to move to natural gas transportation in shipping especially.

For me you are the example of doing that, because if we want to save our Mediterranean basin, if we want to decrease CO2 emissions the shipping industry is one of the key elements for your country.

 

Is this a one way policy for Europe in general?

I would say that we need both. First we need to clean our planet, our transportation system and for that we have to build this partnership with gas and renewables. If you have sun fine, if you do not have sun and wind, you need gas which is especially well adopted for transportation. You can build solar farms for development, for local people etc but especially in this Greek industry natural gas is the most well adopted commodity promoted by us, by all associations, governments, NGOs and the EU. Greek people who are involved in this industry should be the leaders of this change in the future.

 

In times of financial crisis funding is always an issue. Do you expect that private investors will take the risks to further invest in renewable energy sources?  

I would say we are living in a context where climate change is one of our priorities. If we want to move forward in that direction you need to have a partnership with private initiatives, from utilities, industries, the private sector, local governments, the Greek government and the EU. I think that if you put forward projects all together saying we need funds we will have an investment environment which is in favor of that, you will succeed. But these three, associations, local people, government, private utilities, local government and EU Commission should promote that and go together in the same way. There is no other priority.

 

People are united or divided when it comes to energy sources?

We have to save our planet to save our people. We see that we have to face bomb attacks everywhere and we have to face climate change. Energy is one of the keys. If you travel in big cities in Asia or even in Europe you cannot breathe, so are we going to stay without doing anything or do we want energy and especially clean energy to play an important role? Are we staying without doing anything or do we want to live in a better way? For me this is a question of philosophy but also a question of acting now in a quick way, because in several cities people are getting ill every day. So we need to do something and I would say in maritime to protect our oceans, to protect Mediterranean, to protect all the seas in the world, for the transport sector which increases every day, natural gas has to play an important role.

The interview was made on the sidelines of the 1st international conference 'Energy market: unlocking Greece’s economic potential' which took place on Tuesday March 22, in Athens. The event was organized by the Technical Chamber of Greece TEE  in collaboration with the think tank Hellenic Association for Energy Economics.