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Prime Minister Edi Rama, while attending the UN conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on climate change COP26, delivered a speech in front of the audience.
It is learned that the Prime Minister has stated that he is proud that Albania is not a polluting country and that energy production in Albania relies on renewable sources, 100 percent hydric, zero percent fossil fuels.
Rama asked a question about the big countries of the world: “I listened to you and took note, but I still have not received an answer to the question I came here with. It probably did not occur to anyone, so I say clearly: “How do they think the big pollutants help us, who are non-point sources?”
The Prime Minister further asked for support for the energy crisis.
The full speech of Prime Minister Rama at the UN conference on climate change COP26:
My name is Edi Rama. I am probably the tallest here, but I come from one of the smaller countries, Albania. I and my fellow citizens see from your countries as models of good governance. At important events, such as today, we are told what to do. Usually, we listen and take note. So I did, I listened to you and took note, but I still have not received an answer to the question I came up with here. It probably did not occur to anyone, so I say clearly: “How do they think the big pollutants help us, who are non-point sources?”
Our energy production is based on renewable sources, 100 percent hydria, zero percent fossil fuels. And we do not just make promises that we will face the common challenge of the commitments made and the objectives set.
But we are not self-sufficient, so we have to import energy and, consequently, import pollution. Our small country asks you: “How long will we have to keep doing the right thing alone? How long will we have to be the first to pay the price for your contribution to climate change and, further, for your failure to rectify its consequences?
Now that winter is coming, our budget is losing, as we have to buy energy and prices have skyrocketed. Moreover, due to the severe drought, our hydropower plants cannot meet the needs of the country. Thus we find ourselves between two monsters, Sheila, as we pray for rain to generate electricity and the Caribbean, the risk of devastating floods that erode massive parts of our small rural economy.
We cannot stand idly by and wait for markets to move rapidly in the right direction. I hope you keep your promises of funding to support low- and middle-income countries; starting from clean energy models, such as Albania. This financing should not come in the form of loans that trap our countries in the debt cycle trap, but through grants that empower us to invest. And I hope that support will not continue to mean endless studies and strategies, the impact of which is many times lower than the cost it takes to pay people from the rich countries that design them.
It is quite noble to refuse any mixture with the fossil fuels of our 100 percent renewable energy production. Some of you may be able to afford it. For us, it is a daily battle. The model is impossible to cope without the support of richer and more powerful countries. I am aware that future climate initiatives are not only conditioned by what affects Albania or similar countries, but your lack of action affects us and many like us, who pay the high price for the profits of big polluters.
I started by saying that we have our eyes on your countries, as models of good governance. I hope we do not get to the point where we realize it was wrong. Thank you. /abcnews.al
