ATHENS — Cooperation at an international level is the only way that humanity can effectively address environmental issues and avert ecological disaster, said President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Friday in her message for World Environment Day.

The president said that the environment, the economy and social cohesion must be able to coexist with the right checks and balances, based on the self-evident acknowledgement that the environment is destructible.

Sakellaropoulou also noted that Greece was this year celebrating World Environment Day in a unprecedented conjuncture, as it gradually exited the most difficult phase of a pandemic that has already claimed thousands of victims worldwide.

"We are exiting wounded but somewhat wiser. The pandemic did not take the scientific community by surprise, it was a known threat. A threat that will continue because it is linked with the biodiversity crisis for which, to a great extent, the excessive warming of the planet is implicated," she underlined.

The president also referred to the warnings of the scientific community, which has said at every opportunity that epidemics will become more frequent, that they will become pandemics more quickly and have severe repercussions on the economy, costing the lives of more and more people.

Sakellaropoulou pointed out the need to change course and radically change production methods, investment models and global patterns of consumption.

Finally, she underlined that Greece's future is linked to its ability to protect the country's unique natural environment and rescue its cultural heritage, adding that World Environment Day is a reminder that sustainable growth is a prerequisite for the protection of the environment. "The kind of growth that meets the needs of the current generation without jeopardising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," she concluded.