Good evening and good day everyone,
First of all, thank you and well done to Penang Green Council for organising this year’s Earth Day 2023 celebration. Earth Day falls on 22nd April every year. Even though we are celebrating it ahead of time, the call to protect our earth remains especially with the rise of recent climate change events.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We all have a role to play in protecting Mother Earth because it is us, right now, this generation is able to do before our resources gets depleted and there is nothing left for the generations to come.
I hope that everyone here will carve the theme for Earth Day 2023 in your hearts and in all that you do from now on – Invest In Our Planet.
We make investments and savings for retirement to ensure that we are well taken care of during our older days. What about the Earth? It is right now that we must take a look a closer look around us to see what has climate change done to our environment. Just recently, Auckland experienced its ‘biggest climate event’ in New Zealand’s history with days of downpour, flooding the streets and airport. Landslides and sinkholes around the city threaten homes, leaving many homeless and damages to vehicles. Climate crisis like these do not just affect the livelihood of the people, but also the economy – short term price spikes for fresh food, rents, transportation, labour and construction.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Penang State Government made our ‘investment’ towards our planet through Penang2030 which I introduced in 2018 and Penang Green Agenda 2030. Penang Green Agenda 2030 addresses key environmental issues aligning with the Penang2030 vision to create a green and smart state that inspires the nation with hopes to translate them into solutions. Penang2030’s Theme D – by investing in our built environment, we can increase Penang’s resilience to what may come from emerging climate change. D4 hits right on the bull’s eye – implementing measures to Penang as an island threatened by increasing temperature and water security issues. We have laid out achievable green target implementation in our local authority buildings, along the streets and hotels. Alongside those, we are working towards resource efficiency by 20% reduction in domestic water consumption per capita per day by 2030. For your information, we are at 299 litre per/person/day. Also, at this juncture, we have planted 500,364 trees and it has exceeded 250% of our target which is to plant 200,000 trees in Penang by 2030.
Hence, the Penang State Government hopes that all of us, you and me will share the same responsibility to care for the earth as part of us and in our daily lives.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, it is a meaningful gathering for us all to be here for such a celebration. Coincidently, it is also tonight in which the world will be observing 60 minutes of lights off to commemorate Earth Hour from 8.30-9.30pm. We will also be joined by 74 premises all over Penang, including here at Straits Quay as part of PGC’s collective movement in bringing everyone together for one good cause. This double celebration for our earth is a reminder to us that is it time, time to invest also in our planet. It is still not too late. Because we only have one earth, we can’t afford to lose it. We hope that through celebrations like that, we are reminded that we all have a responsibility to play.
It is no longer a choice of which paths to take. There is no time more vital then now for us to take actions to invest in our planet. I am proud of Penang Green Council, JCI and their partners for taking proactive steps in carving the pathway for us all to contribute even our littlest effort in investing for our planet.
Thank you and Happy Earth Day 2023.