British High Commissioner’s speech at 2-day National Seminar on Green Growth Policy Tools for Low Carbon Development in Brunei Darussalam.
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: The British High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam, Mr Rob Fenn, said the United Kingdom is proud to have played a part in making cutting edge policy tools more widely available in Brunei Darussalam, Borneo Bulletin reported.
“We are not, of course, starting from scratch. The Brunei Government has been part of a global movement towards Green Growth for years now, sensing that its stewardship of natural resources – the Heart of Borneo, peat swamp forests and marine reserves – can contribute directly to national development and future prosperity.”
The British High Commissioner stated this at the opening of the two-day National Seminar on Green Growth Policy Tools for Low Carbon Development in Brunei Darussalarn (on-site e-Learning/Training for Trainers).
In his opening remarks, Mr Rob Fenn highlighted the visit of British Minister Hugo Swire to the Sultanate last month where the minister, in his speech, saluted Brunei’s efforts.
“Brunei has also worked closely with WWF to help reflect the country’s unique ecosystem services more clearly in the national accounts and strategies to diversify the economy.”
The -British High -Commissioner added that what’s new about the UBD event is the partnership with the Asian Institute of Technology and with ESCAP, which will give participants direct access to the body of best practice that has emerged from international climate change negotiations.
“As we look back on last month’s conference in Doha – “COP 18″ – and learn lessons for the next phase of the talks – on which all our futures depend – the UK wants to help strengthen Brunei’s attachment to Green Growth. That way Brunei can reap benefits which the UK itself has gained from its low-carbon trajectory.”
The distinguished and expert visitors from ESCAP, in association with the Asian Institute of Technology, added the high commissioner, have taken the Green Growth road show to several locations in Southeast Asia but Bandar Seri Begawan provides one of the most significant audiences they will find anywhere in their travels.
Here, the Green Growth message is not new, as Britain’s favourite scientist broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has just reminded them that the Green Growth message chimes with the Sultanate’s custodianship of the rainforest, peat swamp forest, seas, reefs and nature’s other wonders.
Brunei is of course not immune to the developmental pressures that Sir David talked about and the country’s prosperity means it faces same challenges from consumerism and short-term measurements of the public interest that the British Government faces.
“Unlike many developed countries, however, Brunei is not starting from a situation in which the economy has already been diversified on a high-carbon basis, requiring deliberate adaptation while seeking to sustain economic growth – sometimes compared to “re-engineering and aircraft in mid-air.”
By contrast, the Sultanate is at the start of the process of economic diversification and thus the opportunity to build in Green Growth principles from scratch and to reap from day one the benefits of a Green Growth philosophy.
The High Commissioner also shared some of the benefits, which the UK itself is reaping from a Green Growth approach, which he feels that if these practices are built into the next economic paradigm that will be required when oil and gas reserves are eventually depleted.
This can also be of service to Brunei by helping ensure that Brunei’s world-leading oil and gas sector is fully joined up with the rest of the economy, generating sustainable jobs and sustainable prosperity, an insight that is already enshrined in the White Paper on Energy recently published by the Energy Department at the Prime Minister’s Office.
The recent historic visit by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to BSP was a fitting focus, which is one topical example of how the energy sector and environmentalism in Brunei are interlinked, where Her Majesty expressed great admiration for the Heart of Borneo initiative.
In the UK’s experience, low-carbon policies help lift growth and competitiveness by boosting technological competitiveness, lowering business costs, encouraging infrastructure investment, reducing exposure to fossil fuel volatility and by opening new export markets.
It was right for the UK Government to speak up in this region, which is home to some of its closest friends and trading partners and to put money where their mouth is and globally, they have committed almost three billion Sterling pounds to the international climate fund, up to 2015, to help the developing world mitigate and adapt to climate change.
The British High Commissioner also disclosed on the antiquarian book given as a present to the Minister of Industry and Primary Resources during his visit, which is an early edition of a work by many foreign scientists to be bowled over the “unexpected treasures’ of this island.
In Mr Swire’s message, in selecting that book, was that of the economic policies referred to as Green Growth are perfectly compatible with being a “Negara Zikir” and Brunei was showing reverence for the created world long before people like him who have started making speeches about Green Growth.
Brunei has already owned the agenda and should regard it as much more of an opportunity than a threat and although the risks are still there, many of them bound up in the words, Climate Change.