2022 was one of the worst years in the history of wildfires in Europe, as forest fires destroyed over 8.3 million hectares of land, with an incalculable cost in human lives.
An area roughly the size of Crete was burned.
At the unique interactive exhibition “Technology in the Fight Against Wildfires: Our Inventions Help Us Build a Better World,” held in collaboration with the European Patent Office, and with the valuable contributions of the Fire Service, the National Observatory of Athens, and the Agricultural University of Athens, groundbreaking innovative technologies for prevention, protection, firefighting, and restoration of burned areas will be presented to the public for the first time. The goal is to preserve the ecological balance of our planet for future generations.
Just days before the inauguration of the interactive exhibition, the President of the EPO, António Campinos, stated: “With the United Nations (UN) warning of a 30% increase in wildfires by 2050, our collective response must go beyond individual efforts. We need to pool as many resources as possible and enable innovators to bring new technologies to market. I believe we will not be defined necessarily by the challenges we face, but by the collective efforts with which we tackle them. The exhibition is proof of this.”
The Director-General of OBI, Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, commented:
“Research and innovation must be at the forefront of wildfire prevention and mitigation. Climate change is confronting the world with increasingly extreme phenomena. The EPO exhibition, in collaboration with OBI, held in Athens, in the heart of the Mediterranean, symbolizes the decisive involvement of the intellectual property system in promoting new technologies in the battle against wildfires.”
The exhibition will be open to the public from March 13, 2024, to March 27, 2024, at the Zappeion Hall and will focus on four key areas:
- Fire detection and prevention
- Firefighting
- Protective equipment
- Post-fire restoration
Daily hours: 09:00 – 17:00
Saturday-Sunday: 11:00 – 19:00
Zappeion Hall, Rooms 2 & 3
Vasileos Olgas Avenue,
105 57 Athens
Free entry
