Activities of the Second and Final Day of the 11th International Ecology Congress, held at the Tauride Palace in Saint Petersburg, Federal Republic of Russia

This Friday, May 23, 2025, the Burundi Senate Speaker, Right Honourable Emmanuel Sinzohagera, along with his delegation, participated in the activities of the second and final day of the 11^th International Ecology Congress, held at the Tauride Palace in Saint Petersburg, Federal Republic of Russia, under the theme: Planet Earth: Living in Harmony with Nature.

The activities took place in plenary session and were attended by several parliamentarians, public authorities, scientists, experts, volunteer movements, and many others, representing more than 70 nationalities.

The discussion, as the Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly emphasized, focused on the fundamental questions of how to imagine the world in the future and what we want to pass on to the next generation. During this 11^th Congress, various participants emphasized that planet Earth is the only home for the entire humanity, and therefore, it is imperative to demonstrate responsibility to protect it.

Nevertheless, despite everyone’s efforts to preserve nature, participants highlighted a wide range of common challenges caused by climate change, including hurricanes; typhoons; loss of diversity; environmental degradation; deforestation; pollution caused by plastic waste; bushfires; soil degradation, etc. Since these environmental challenges have no borders, they require coordinated, common, and immediate responses.

Among the actions proposed by the participants, there is a definition of objectives and tasks within specific timeframes; putting environmental security in national security considerations; list environmental considerations at the heart of energy legislation and urbanism; transform environmental issues into principles of cross-border cooperation, in inter-parliamentary dialogues; use intellectual potential to combine efforts; invest in new technologies and act in synergy; develop an inter-parliamentary charter for environmental protection for good cross-border cooperation; give vulnerable countries access to financing, etc.

In his speech, the Burundi Senate Speaker emphasized that the ecological crisis is the result of human actions and is responsible for environmental problems. To achieve harmony between human beings and nature, the Senate Speaker suggested strengthening synergies to make communities resilient; mobilizing additional budgets to scale up resilient technologies; and facilitating access to financing for vulnerable countries.

Finally, the Right Honourable Emmanuel Sinzohagera indicated that sustainable development is based on the simultaneous combination of three pillars: environmental protection, economic development, and preservation of social cohesion.

The congress closed with an optimistic message conveying a firm belief in the possibility of overcoming the challenges of climate change through fair and transparent inter-parliamentary dialogue.

To conclude all of the activities, each Head of delegation, preceded by the Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia, planted a tree in Tavrichesky Garden.