Today, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Climate and Energy Minister Raimonds Čudars. Meeting focused on agenda of the newly created Ministry. Latvia needs consolidated national climate and energy policy – these are Latvia’s priority sectors, indicated President.
President Levits congratulated Minister Čudars on the creation of Energy and Climate Ministry. Latvia needs a line minister politically responsible for these areas in the government. That is why President of Latvia actively advocated for this step during the formation of new government.
President Levits welcomes the proposal to establish Climate and Energy Commission in the Cabinet of Ministers. Commission would be comprised of Transport and Agriculture ministers who represent emission-intensive sectors. Commission would be chaired by Climate and Energy Minister. This would lead to well-coordinated climate policy at the national and EU level.
President Levits and Minister Čudars also touched upon progress with National Energy and Climate Plan. Review has revealed major gaps. Since Plan’s adoption in 2019, European Union has considerably increased its climate ambitions and Russian invasion of Ukraine has drastically changed the energy sector. Minister informed President that European Commission expects updated plan by summer and its drafting continues to pick up speed.
Both officials underlined the significance of research in planning of climate policy. ‘We must invest in research-driven climate and energy policies. That is how we can achieve favourable data-driven solutions,’ President of Latvia Egils Levits said.
President and Minister also agreed that Latvia must build growth models that also support climate-neutral objectives.
