Romanian president Nicușor Dan called for nature protection to be permanently integrated into public policy and economic development in his opening message to the Climate Change Summit 2026 on Wednesday, October 14. The message was delivered at the Palace of Parliament by state adviser Ștefania-Georgiana Simion.
President Dan said Romania needs secure and affordable energy, investment, and infrastructure adapted to climate change, while also protecting the forests, water, and habitats on which public health and well-being depend.
“Protecting natural heritage is part of the state’s responsibility toward its citizens, a priority that I support and want to see reflected in public decisions,” he said.
The president identified the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt as an example of cooperation among citizens, specialists, and authorities.
“Protecting the forests around the capital and restoring connections between natural areas have a direct impact on residents’ quality of life,” he stated. “They must be included in the planning of a metropolitan area that needs cleaner air, recreational spaces, and better adaptation to high temperatures.”
Back in October 2023, while serving as Bucharest mayor, Nicușor Dan signed the Memorandum for Clean Air, Health and the Future, the founding document of the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt and the wider national green belt initiative. This was promoted by the Centura Verde/Green Belt Foundation, an initiative of mountaineer and conservationist Alex Gǎvan.
In his message on Wednesday, president Dan also advocated a development model for Roșia Montană that protects the landscape and cultural heritage while creating opportunities for residents. He said the area demonstrated the importance of involving citizens in decisions that could irreversibly change their communities.
Moreover, the president called for stable support for centers that rehabilitate injured and orphaned wildlife and urged authorities to clarify how Lake Techirghiol’s protected status is being observed in land-use decisions and local activities.
“Protecting nature must be permanently integrated into any vision for development,” Nicușor Dan said. “That means predictable rules, rigorous assessments, and resources for conservation.”
The Green Belt is meant to be the largest green infrastructure project in Romania, Alex Gǎvan says.
Mountaineer and conservationist Alex Găvan, who co-founded the Together for the Green Belt civic platform, addressed the Climate Change Summit’s Green Stage on Wednesday, October 14.
He said during his intervention at the Restoring the Balance Sheet: Nature as Europe's Next Critical Infrastructure event that the proposed network should integrate forests, water, wetlands, grasslands, and farmland around and within cities, rather than operate as a conventional green belt primarily intended to limit construction.
"Bucharest and Romania need the right mechanisms to successfully face the challenges of the 21st century. Green belts are such a mechanism - and the Green Belt is meant to be the largest green infrastructure project in Romania,” he said, as quoted in a statement sent to Romania Insider.
“It should be planned, financed, and managed like other types of infrastructure, such as roads, utilities, and energy networks.”
The initiative has already secured protection from commercial logging for more than 26,000 hectares of forest in Ilfov County through Romania’s new Forestry Code.
The Green Belt Foundation is now working with the Environment Ministry on implementing rules intended to protect several hundred thousand hectares of publicly owned forests surrounding Romanian cities. A proposed second stage would establish a national financing program that municipalities could voluntarily access to develop full green belts.
“We have also taken the project to Brussels, aiming to scale it up across the EU. Because protection without financing is a promise - and financing without protection is a subsidy that evaporates. Romania and Europe need both,” Alex Găvan stated.
He further argued that the economic value of standing forests is largely absent from public budgets, despite the services they provide.
“Over 70% of Europe’s economy depends on nature, yet we value it at zero. In public budgets, a road is counted as an investment. A forest is counted only as timber. The value of a standing forest - in terms of clean air, cooler summers, and flood protection - appears nowhere,” he said.
“And in the next EU budget, nature loses even its own dedicated line: it is merged into a single pot for climate and the environment, accounting for 35% of the budget.”
Further on, Alex Găvan also presented the Green Belt as an economic and public health investment, arguing that decision-makers are more likely to prioritize green infrastructure when its benefits are expressed in financial terms.
He said air pollution already costs Bucharest around EUR 6 billion annually, describing it as a “utility bill” paid through hospital admissions, lost working days, and lives. He also cited public data suggesting that Bucharest residents could gain more than four years in life expectancy if authorities met their pollution-reduction targets.
Against this background, he described a green belt as “one of the cheapest utilities we can build to bring down that bill.”
According to him, green infrastructure should receive the same legal status, multiyear financing, and long-term planning as conventional infrastructure.
“Roads connect cities, but I truly believe that green belts keep them livable,” Alex Găvan concluded. “Planning one without the other isn’t infrastructure planning; it’s half a plan.”