Remarks by the President of Latvia, Egils Levits, at the Big Cleanup Day discussion ‘Climate change: why public involvement is crucial?’

Dear friends,

Let me start by welcoming everyone to the Riga Castle. It has been a while, but here we are again! I can only agree with Mrs Jaunzeme, we need to come together again. We shake hands here today, and a month from now, on 30 April, we will meet again during the big spring clean. We cannot clean up through a computer screen, we need to come together and help our country, nature and community.

I take my hat off to the coordinators of the Big Cleanup Day. To all of you who are here. You are the core team that will start building the Big Cleanup Day to give people in Latvia an opportunity to join clean-up activities and make the environment a little tidier and nicer a month from now. This is not about cleaning up or picking up rubbish only. We are talking about amenities and other improvements that make our life better. Each Big Cleanup Day makes us feel a little better. That is why we take part in it: to feel one with nature, try to bring men and women closer to nature again. Unfortunately, a lot of this alienation comes from capitalism, and the aim of the Big Cleanup Day is to bring men and women back into nature and bring nature closer to where we are. This is more than an environmental or climate campaign. This is a community movement.

As a rather new national tradition, the Big Cleanup Day has become as popular among the masses as the millennia-old summer solstice or 150-year old song and dance celebration. Such traditional nationwide events open to large masses are rather unique outside Latvia. The Big Cleanup Day, one of such traditions, can truly be considered the bonding element of people. A sense of unity motivates us to aspire to make Latvia better and keep making our land, which is a tiny dot on the world map, greater because we care. And our example has been contagious, we have become champions of the global clean-up movement. Latvia was one of the first countries where it started and has now grown to global proportions.

We are at the core of this process again. We are today the centre from where the big spring clean-up radiates all over Latvia. It is crucial for you, dear coordinators, to always be aware of this important mission not only for Latvia, but for the whole world. We need to make it better. We need to save it if we use more dramatic terms. If we do nothing, climate change and natural disasters will result in a global collapse.  We need to save our planet from that. And you, dear coordinators and helpers, are the ones who fight global warming with your ‘bare hands’.

Russia is currently invading Ukraine. We all stand with Ukraine, and we can already start thinking about what needs to happen after the war. When Ukraine will have to rebuild its infrastructure and homes. There will also be all kinds of military waste like shells, mines and other military equipment. We know what it is like – we have Liepāja and know what it looked like when the Soviet army withdrew in the 1990s as its troops left. The scale of destruction will, of course, be much bigger in Ukraine, and that is when Ukraine will need our help and solidarity most.

War in Ukraine has also demonstrated how important and strategically significant it is to become energy independent and put most of the focus on generating power through renewables. That is the European Deal in action. Latvia thinks that all ties with Russia need to severed as quickly as possible, especially the ones in the energy sector.

We, the Latvians, have consistently warned Europe of the dangers of slipping into energy dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Everyone understands it now and we can lead the way into the new future. That is why the Green Deal is so much more important now. It is our way of helping the environment and making it healthier.

Dear friends, thank you, and in particular you, my dear Mrs Jaunzeme, for steering this national tradition in the right direction. Thank you for letting all people join in and work side-by-side with others. The Big Cleanup Day is not just a climate campaign, it is an important element of our well-being as a society and individuals.