President Nasheed says the Maldives must launch a drive for greater energy efficiency, to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil and safeguard its future development.
The President noted that improving energy efficiency, and shifting from oil to renewable energy, reduces the country’s vulnerability to spikes in the oil price, over which it has no control.
“Every time the oil price goes up, we are brought to our knees and our development is set back,” the President said.
“Adopting energy efficiency does not mean giving up the good life,” the President added, noting that the Maldives can continue its development while also reducing its reliance on expensive imported oil.
The President made the remarks during a speech to the South Asia Lighting Transformation Forum, which opened this morning at Trader’s Hotel, Male’.
The President said the adoption of energy efficiency measures, such as the introduction of energy-saving LED lights, would help the Maldives pursue a low carbon development path.
Speaking earlier in the meeting, Mohamed Aslam, Minister of Housing and Environment, said his Ministry has recently undertaken an energy efficiency drive, which has reduced the Ministry’s electricity bill by Rs30,000 per month.
Minister Aslam said that many of the cost savings came from simple measures, such as switching off computers at the end of each working day and setting the air-conditioning system to a “comfortable” 24 degrees Celsius.
The government recently announced plans to improve energy efficiency in ten government offices, in order to save money, improve the country’s energy security and help meet the Maldives’ 2020 carbon neutral target.
