President of Latvia was one of the panellists for discussion among invited heads of state, high-ranking officials and youth delegates who are change-makers in different regions of the world on most pressing modern challenges such as climate, education, digital and technological development.
President Levits addressed the issue of climate change and emphasised that Latvia has ambitious goals. He pointed out that Latvia is one of the European Union (EU) countries that supports more active climate change response. ‘Latvia has a very favourable geographic location. We are not yet affected by extreme climatic events. However, we generally have environmentally conscious society and among EU member states we are the ones with very active position on climate policy,’ said Egils Levits.
Egils Levits underlined the significant role played by youth in addressing climate concerns and praised the involvement of Latvian Youth Parliament. ‘There is a pressure coming from young people to prioritise green policies in our political agenda. They are the ones who could lead the way by showing how easy it is to change your lifestyle and abandon consumeristic behaviour. Young people have not yet developed those patterns, it is easier for them to change,’ mentioned the President.
As far as the digital transformation is concerned, President of Latvia is confident that a great focus on educating people and media literacy is needed. ‘Use of modern digital tools requires critical thinking. One of the main assets of modern digital platforms is personal data and aggregation into big data, the so-called profiling. It is probable that such processing of data could lead to possible abuse,’ said the President. According to him, rational use of new technologies requires certain aptitude for social sciences, you must know to whom, when and how you should give your data. President also mentioned that Latvia is currently piloting media literacy in Latvian schools. Media literacy is important in building resilience of citizens of democratic countries against direct influence.
Secretary General of UNESCO, Audray Azoulay, welcomed President Levits by thanking him for deciding to draw everyone’s attention to key modern challenges during the panel discussion.
