PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will honour the Paris Agreement and keep the country on track to in its measures against climate change, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister stressed that Malaysia stood firmly on the issue of climate change even if it required adherence to the Paris Agreement or any international standards.
“We have to take measures to save our country and society and if it requires us to observe strictly the understanding which is tied to the Paris Agreement, we have to honour (it),” he said in a live interview with World Economic Forum founder Prof Klaus Schwab, titled “A Conversation with Anwar Ibrahim” in Davos.
Anwar was asked to respond to the United States’s withdrawal from the Agreement in terms of committing to the international treaty on climate change and on human rights.
Anwar further elaborated that the Asean Power Grid (APG) initiative, aimed at providing sustainable electricity to the region has shown faster-than-expected progress.
“It is a faster pace than what was projected earlier and if we can reach that in the next few years, of course it is more economic as it is cheaper energy but it meets the requirement of the Paris Agreement.
He added that richer, industrialised countries need to honour their promises to tackle the global climate change challenges to which they have contributed the most.
Speaking on human rights in the Asean region, Anwar said the members have reached a five-point consensus on Myanmar after rigorous and active engagement on human rights.
He added that Malaysia can be a role model as a united country with multiracial and multiethnic groups.
“There is a trust deficit in terms of moral ethical principles in governance that is what I considered as hypocrisy, politics of ambivalence.
“So we would have to showcase that Malaysia is a multiracial country, we are a Muslim majority with strong ethnic Indian, Chinese and the tribal groups of Sabah Sarawak can be taken as one great family then we show others in that manner,” he said.
