Meeting with Eleni Zippou – City Council Representative

As part of the ECHOES project, our participants conducted interviews with policymakers and representatives of environmental organizations to talk about the environmental challenges in Athens and the general lack of awareness around climate policy. The first meeting took place on Monday, 23 March 2026, during which we spoke with City Council representative Eleni Zippou. 

To start, Ms. Zippou shared her long-standing and ongoing political efforts to save several beautiful houses in her neighbourhood from demolition and replacement by large building complexes. In this context, she highlighted the general tendency in Athens to prioritize constructing massive office buildings rather than maintaining existing environments or converting newly available spaces into inner-city green areas. The latter, in particular, would be especially important given the city’s dense traffic and the resulting air pollution. When asked why Athens is so car-dependent, Ms. Zippou explained that over the years the city has steadily expanded without concrete planning, and new suburban neighbourhoods are now primarily connected to each other and the city center by wide roads, while public transportation remains insufficient. Our project participants were particularly concerned about the high levels of car pollution and the fact that, aside from public transport, other alternative forms of transportation, such as safe bike lanes, currently seem largely unfeasible in most parts of the inner city. Moreover, they were interested in gaining a deeper understanding of how the waste management system in Athens works. While different containers for separating waste exist, a general lack of education and, in some cases, even access to nearby disposal facilities make proper waste separation more difficult. Both citizens and policymakers still need to work on improving recycling systems and raising public awareness to ensure a cleaner and more sustainable city.

Across all the challenges we discussed, the biggest hurdle lies in political structures and decision-makers who fail to take consistent action for the public good, often prioritizing their own interests over those of citizens. As Eleni Zippou noted from her experience over the years, newly elected officials often refuse to continue environmental plans developed by their predecessors. As a result, processes stall, ambitions fade, and meaningful change is delayed. Therefore, we concluded that citizens’ initiatives and organized efforts to hold politicians accountable are all the more important in advancing the goal of making Athens more environmentally friendly and ultimately more livable.