Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has stated it is a challenge for politicians to find a way to deal with the growing threat from climate change.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 4th South Asian Speakers' Summit on Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) held in Maldives, Parliament Speaker called on the countries to fix the policies on climate, economics and politics.
Addressing the summit held at the Parliament of Maldives, Speaker Nasheed highlighted the powerful trends that led to the establishment of the Paris Climate Accord. Nasheed noted when Maldives announced its carbon neutral plan in 2009, it was met with scepticism. He said it was never believed Maldives could produce electricity from renewable cheaper resources. He said after 9 years, Maldives had shown the world cheaper alternative methods to generate electricity rather than burning diesel.
The former president also spoke on the introduction of self-driving, electric cars to reduce traffic deaths and improve air quality in cities and towns. He highlighted Asian countries are leading the way in shifting to electric cars, with India announcing all new cars on its roads must be electric by 2030.
Furthermore, the parliament speaker urged the countries to use technology to improve farming yields, as that have been done since the 1970s. The speaker expressed hope that new methods, such as city farms and vertical farming, can create new areas in which to grow food, such as in cities. Nasheed added if technology can continue to boost agricultural productivity, it could lead to one of the most positive aspects of environmentalism in recent years: re-wilding. He noted changes in energy, transport and farming would lead to a world that is starting to heal, adding rather than environmental problems getting worse every year, they should start to get better. He also outlined these changes should make for excellent policies, in an election manifesto.
The two-day high-level Summit will build on the conclusions of the previous summits and will allow speakers of parliaments to continue to develop dialogue and parliamentary cooperation on achieving the SDGs. Given their legislative, oversight, representative and budgetary functions, parliaments play a key role in ensuring a sustainable future for current and future generations.
The Summit is intended for speakers of the parliaments from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives.