Dear participants and leaders of Eco-school programme,
Dear teachers, pupils and nature friends,
I am absolutely delighted to have been invited to Eco-schools Award ceremony today.
We live in the age of globalisation. We hear different alarming news from all over the world about wild forest fires, melting ice caps and endangered animal species that are all suffering from rapid climate change. One could even feel overwhelmed, helpless and small in the face of all these nature calamities reported in the news and unravelling all around us.
But all of you are the example of how powerful combined effort can be, and how true concern for the environment can support the sustainable national development of our country. By getting more and more educated on the environment and making smarter choices every day, for example, sorting waste, saving energy, choosing bike or public transport, you make our country more beautiful, cleaner and greener for us all.
I want to say a big thank you to all the Latvian educational institutions and all those who took part in Eco-schools programme to help Latvia become cleaner, greener and more sustainable for us and future generations.
There are 59,000 schools around the world taking part in the Environmental Education Fund programme, including Latvian ones, and I am very pleased that the number of schools joining Eco-school programme is growing with every year, so as the number of pupils interested in environmental education and acquiring of Green Flag. Green Flag is the highest award and there are currently 110 schools in Latvia that have it. That is a great news!
But there is one special school among them. Amata Primary School that had won the green flag each year for the past 17 years since launch of this program in Latvia. I would also like to mention Alūksne preschool educational establishment Sprīdītis that has successfully developed a system for implementing Eco-school programme in their school and earning Eco-school ambassador status for the first time ever. It is an amazing achievement. My sincerest congratulations!
In fact, all of us here today should feel like winners. Our joint efforts will help preserve biodiversity in one of the most beautiful corners of our planet, Latvia. Good luck everyone!