It is not going to be an easy feat for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to voluntarily reduce emission intensity of GDP by up to 40%, former Ireland president Mary Robinson said.
“I am glad to see that Malaysia is looking to position itself on a low-carbon growth path,” said Robinson, who was also the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“He faces not only climate challenges but also the reality of the democratic politics and economic needs of Malaysia,” she said after her lecture titled “Sharing the Unequal Burdens of Global Warming – Climate Justice and Our Global Responsibility” yesterday.
The pledged reduction was tabled by Najib at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15) at Copenhagen in December 2009.
Robinson hopes the Malaysian public and business and political groups will realise that long-term policies towards eco-friendly practices are more important than short-term climate unfriendly decisions.
Robinson also said political leaders and the public on the inter-connectedness of climate change with development and social justice issues.
Present at the lecture, organised by Khazanah Nasional, was Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
“This climate problem will only be fixed through concerted globalisation,” she added.
Robinson, who has been credited for many social reforms in Ireland and as a key figure in the human rights movement said there is a need for countries to take the lead to address the matter.
“Countries don’t have to wait for international negotiations to be resolved in order to take steps to treat climate change,” she said.
Robinson, who was her country’s first woman president from 1990 to 1997, is on a two-day visit to Malaysia.
