First heat officer in Athens: “The silent killer”

Athens struggles with extreme temperatures every summer. Climate change will continue to heat up the Greek capital. Europe’s first heat commissioner has been looking for solutions since 2021 – and wants to use ancient inventions.

Arranging a face-to-face meeting with Eleni Myrivili is not easy. Because as Europe’s first heat officer, she is a much sought-after woman: Sometimes she gives a lecture at the famous Ted conference in Vancouver, sometimes she meets with scientists in Barcelona or Lisbon.

In the end it works with a personal interview. As a meeting point, she suggests a small park at the foot of Lycabettus Hill in Athens. Sitting on a bench in the shade of large deciduous trees, with a Café Fredo in hand, she tells of her struggle against the heat in the Greek capital, which is regularly the hottest on the entire continent during the summer months.

More green spaces and healthy ecosystems

“We managed to build a city that is 80 percent asphalt and cement,” she says. “So materials that first absorb heat and then release it again at night. We should change that by creating a lot more green spaces, with trees that provide a lot of shade and generally healthy ecosystems that can cool down the city.”

Climate change and its consequences have been her topic for a long time. The 60-year-old was a professor of anthropology, chairwoman of the Greens and vice-mayor of Athens until 2019. She has been the city’s official heat officer since July 2021 – a job that is not always easy.

Added to this is the drought

Because public space has been left to cars, Myrivili continues, there will be a big fight over it, as in many cities around the world. But you have to create more pedestrian zones and natural landscapes in the city.

But there is another problem: In Athens, it not only gets very hot in the summer, it also doesn’t rain for a long time, meaning that green areas have to be watered. But she also has a plan for this: Myrivili wants to reactivate one of the most important infrastructure projects of ancient times in Athens – the aqueduct of the Roman Emperor Hadrian from the second century AD.

Every day, 800,000 cubic meters of fresh water from the mountains north of Athens flow unused into the sea through the more than 25 km long water pipeline. A mammoth project – but necessary, “because if you don’t cool down the city, more and more people will die every year,” says Myrivili.

Mortality increases

The heat waves and the extreme increase in temperatures, especially in urban areas, are also referred to here as the silent killer, says Myrivili, because statistical evidence can be found that mortality increases very sharply as the heat rises.

However, most deaths have not been recorded by any statistics so far, heart attacks or strokes are officially named as the cause of death. People over the age of 65, pregnant women, babies and small children and people who have to work outdoors are particularly vulnerable.

It will get even more difficult

“We expect conditions in Greece, in Athens and in general in urban settings to be much more difficult by 2050,” Myrivili continued. “In general, the eastern Mediterranean is one of the most vulnerable areas in relation to the heat.”

Myrivili has to go back to the town hall – she has an office there, but no other employees apart from a secretary. The fact that specific projects are actually implemented is not in their hands. Your task is to explain, to warn and, if necessary, to annoy, so that Athens will remain habitable in 30 years.