“I think the green movement needs to take a step back and reassess what it is trying to achieve and how,” Mark Lynas, an adviser to President Mohamed Nasheed on sustainable and environmental issues, has told the Ecologist publication.
In an interview for the ecological publication, Lynas, a British journalist and environmental activist, believes that amidst growing controversy in adopting so-called greener technologies, economies like the Maldives require an ‘engineer’ rather than a ‘propagandist’ to succeed.
Talking of his advisory role to President Nasheed, the journalist claims he aims to try and be practical, rather than idealistic, in pursuing green commitments to help the Maldives meet its ambitions to become carbon neutral by 2020.
“When I’m advising the president of the Maldives, I can’t really say to him ‘Our first job is to confront power and smash corporate control’,” Lynas tells the Ecologist. “I have to say to him, ‘OK, let’s look at getting this amount of solar power on these buildings, this amount of wind on the grid in the capital city, let’s work on this kind of building code for energy efficiency’.”
The full Ecologist interview can be read here.
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