Syed Saddiq urges youth to fight climate change

Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has urged young people to play an active role in championing environmental causes.

Speaking at a climate change hackathon event in Sunway, Syed Saddiq said that the younger generation will be worst affected if they turn a blind eye to the crisis.

"If we still think that the problems facing youth involve unemployment, cost of living and public transportation without considering the factors of climate change, then we are misguided," he said.

"We must be morally courageous and dare to think critically out of the box. We must fight for the issues we believe in, which affect us today and will affect us tomorrow."

The minister also expressed concern that the country is not paying enough attention to climate change activism.

"We have to ensure that we put up a collective front which is led by young people in Malaysia," he added.

Young people, Syed Saddiq said, should be the ones to come up with solutions to address environmental challenges.

"Being young, you are expected to come out with the most unconventional solutions," he said, saying that they should think of innovative ideas to fight the crisis which can also be commercialised. 

"If we merely regurgitate what the previous generation has done, then we will be at the massive disadvantage, as we don't have the capital and networks like those much older than us."

Dirty industries

In his speech, the minister also underscored the need to get rid of dirty industries, such as the manufacturing of single-use plastics.

He added, however, that those in these industries must be afforded assistance to transition to other sectors.

"We can slowly transition from these dirty industries with the political will of the federal government and state governments.

"But how do we find the middle ground? The problem is tied together with sustainable growth and sustainable development.

"Often, that difficult unique balance lies in the hand of none other than every one of you in this room," he told the audience.

The hackathon today was organised by the United Nations secretary-general youth envoy and the UN Office of Information and Communication Technology (OICT) in collaboration with SAP and Deloitte.

Speaking to reporters later, Syed Saddiq said the country needs to conduct more climate change events, such as hackathon and coding events, to look for solutions to the crisis.

Putrajaya has been conducting related events, with the Education Ministry spending RM450 million on coding education.

"Moving forward, we cannot just have the government holding such events, it must also work with the experts in the field," he said.  - Mkini