The amount of 40 million euros per year is expected to be incorporated in the licenses of vehicles will be paid by citizens, according to the President of the Movement of Ecologists – Citizens' Cooperation, Charalambos Theopemptou, as a result of the kind of energy we consume.
Mr. Theopemptou, speaking on the show Insider on Active radio, referred to the issue of passports, stressing that the necessary legislation regarding the buildings that were erected was not followed. “No one showed the intention to enforce legislation, and they violated all the laws they had to follow regarding the environment.”
The President of the Movement stressed that Cyprus has garbage everywhere and the country is facing a problem with renewable sources. “We pay around 19-20 million euros every year for pollutants. “People are dying for poor air quality.”
According to Mr. Theopemptou, he also referred to funds from the EU and studies that were done since 2010 but were not used properly.
“If one looks at the potential of Cyprus, we emit pollutants related to transport – about half the pollutants, and we have pollutants from electricity generation and from houses (heating, fireplaces, etc.). From transport to reduce emissions and help people, we had to do public transport. He gave us money 10 years ago. We did public transport to the extent that we did. We also made a plan which we paid and 2-3 million for each city on how they will be promoted. When you have public transport, you have a tremendous improvement of the air in the city because the cars leave, you reduce your emissions – the greenhouse gas that we have many obligations and has a better quality of life of the inhabitants. We gave the money, we did the studies, we were told what to do in 2010 for Nicosia, we did nothing for so many years. Now we have started to make a new mobility plan “.
Regarding the EU fine for pollutants, Mr. Theopemptou spoke about an even bigger additional fine.
We have around 20 million that everyone says will increase this year for the pollutants we have from the EAC but there is a bigger “fine”. We have 10% of energy from transport to be from renewable sources. That is why so many electric cars are sold abroad. We did nothing. We are at about 5%. So the rest, we have to go buy pollutants at the pollution exchange. When we asked the Parliament how much this would cost, then we were told about 40 million a year. Of course it will go to the tax on the car registration “.
As he states, for this reason the reduction in fuel was made by the government so that the transfer of these taxes would not be seen.
Listen to the whole interview of Charalambos Theopemptos on the show Insider.
