Senate President Bukola Saraki has urged parliamentarians from across the world to champion the course of saving the environment in their various jurisdictions.
Saraki, made the declaration at a session of the Globe COP 21 legislators summit inside the French National Assembly Complex with the theme: Developments in National Legislation on Climate Change, Disaster, Risk Reduction, Energy and Sustainable Development – Towards Integrated National Planning on the 2015 Agenda,’ added that the success of the current move to make the environment safer for all living beings require effective and efficient leadership which legislators were better placed to provide.
He said legislators at the Globe summit had a challenge to go back to their home countries and domesticate the issues raised and share the experiences gathered so as to spread the success recorded in some places and avoid the mistakes encountered in some other countries.
“We must make changes through our parliaments. Parliamentarians are better placed to lead the campaign through legislations and advocacy programmes for the needed change of attitude, required investment and consistent attention necessary to reduce global warming and its dangerous consequence,” Saraki said in a statement by his media office.
Also speaking during the session, Representative Kenza El-Ghali, who is Vice President of the Chamber of Representatives in the Kingdom of Morocco, narrated the consistent laws and policies which the North African nation had initiated since 1992 towards promoting sustainable environment in line with global best practices.
She said Morocco had initiated water and agriculture policies which have helped to promote a clean environment and that since 2010 the focus has shifted to having an energy policy focused on solar power through which 16,000 jobs have been created.
In his contribution at the session, Dr. Kennedy Graham, who is President of Globe in New Zealand said his country has the specific challenge of earthquake and that the development has tasked the initiative of policy makers on the need to avert disaster and mitigate losses suffered by citizens during disasters.
Graham said one of such policies already introduced in New Zealand is the Resource Management Act which he described as the first law to promote bio-diversity.
