NEW YORK: Malaysia seeks to accomplish all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ratified by the United Nations (UN), while balancing the needs and well-being of its people, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.
“To a certain extent, we have achieved (some of the goals), and we need to do more. But Malaysia must continue to develop, and our people need development and good infrastructure.
“Good infrastructure sometimes will cause some loss of land and impact the environment. When we need to build lakes and dams, we will be forced to cut down some trees,” he said at the SDG Summit Leaders Dialogue here yesterday.
In 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda which provides a blueprint for the transition to a healthier planet and a more just world. The Agenda contains 17 SDGs, including ending poverty and hunger; expanding access to health, education, justice and jobs; and protecting the planet from environmental degradation.
On poverty, Dr Mahathir said over time, the economy grows and what was regarded as ‘above the poverty line’ becomes ‘below the poverty line’ after a period of years pass.
“Because of the high cost of living and other factors, the poverty level is actually much higher than the original poverty line that we drew in the beginning,” he said, adding that this will go on for years to come.
“As a country grows and becomes richer, the poverty line also reaches a higher level and we still have poverty in our country. I doubt if it is possible to eradicate poverty totally, but we will try.”
Dr Mahathir said when the population grows, the amount of waste produced also keeps growing, and the government has to spend more money to treat the waste produced as time goes by.
“It is grossly unfair for some rich countries, for example, to send their waste to poor countries because it costs us a lot of money to get rid of it,” he said, adding that plastic in particular is difficult to dispose of.
“As we grow bigger and richer, we produce more waste than ever before, and treating waste is something that will leave us still unable to fulfil our desire to have sustainable development. This is going to be with us for a long time,” Dr Mahathir said.
He said Malaysia had also met its commitment on forest cover with 53 to 55 per cent of the country’s land area remain covered by natural forests.
“The world expects all the carbon dioxide produced to be absorbed by forests in Malaysia and elsewhere. We will try to sustain our forests for as long as possible... nevertheless we will need land over time for human settlement.
“We cannot say that we will keep people from living in good houses simply because we have no space for them,” Dr Mahathir said in an off-the-cuff speech seasoned with a pinch of sarcasm.
Food supply also requires land use, he said, citing alternative modern farming techniques that include growing vegetables on tiers of buildings and in pots “so they don’t occupy too much space”.
To reduce air pollution from petrol-driven vehicles, Dr Mahathir said, Malaysia plans to have more hybrid and electric cars. Electricity generation will also avoid using nuclear power to minimise impact on the environment.
“We don’t think we know enough about nuclear material at this time. We know how to activate materials (like uranium), but not how to reverse the process so that they become harmless,” he added.
Dr Mahathir said nuclear waste needs to be buried deep enough underground so that the radiation – which can last up to a million years – will not affect the people.
For the record, the US is the world’s largest nuclear electricity producer. American vehicles, meanwhile, have the second highest average fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per kilometre driven.
“Malaysia will try its best to achieve the sustainable goals, although we have a need to do certain things which may cause a lot of problems for the environment. But we will try our very best to achieve the goals,” he said.