Environment
Maldives Environment Minister at COP 25: “We are living through a climate emergency”
The Edition11.12.2019Read original
The COP25 climate talks in Madrid brought together governments, businesses, local authorities and civil society to express support for the Paris Agreement and for urgent climate action, building momentum on the path towards next year’s COP26 Conference in Glasgow, when all Parties to the Paris Agreement are expected to communicate or update their national climate targets. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) was hosted in Madrid, Spain, under the Presidency of the Government of Chile, with logistical support from Spain.
Citing the science-based IPCC 1.5 Special Report, Minister Hussain declared that as much as 70 to 90 or 99 percent of Maldives’ coral reefs will be destroyed in less than 10 years from now if world leaders collectively fail to take appropriate action.
The Minister noted that as such, Maldivian islands are set to face catastrophic erosion and flooding, in addition to the irreversible negative impacts on tourism and fisheries industries.
“Yes, we are all concerned, but that’s not enough. We need action too”, the Minister announced.
“If we honour our commitments and be honest with ourselves, staying within the 1.5 degree Celsius limit of global warming is still possible”.
Speaking of the financial challenges, Minister Hussain stated that increased ambitions, in terms of NDC’s are meaningless if not backed up by financing.
“Small islands like us are already paying immense resources of our own, towards the implementation of our NDCs, in order to achieve our mitigation and adaptation targets”, he said.
“In the Maldives, as much as 20 percent of our public sector investment programme for next year is on climate adaptation and mitigation. This shows our high level of commitment”.
Minister Hussain called for the international community to maintain the momentum towards fulfilling the climate finance pledge of USD 100 billion, ensure that we agree on concrete implementable actions that will overcome the climate catastrophe, resolve the issues relating to markets and maintain the multilateral framework that we have all embarked on.
“Given the circumstances that we are in, we cannot simply ignore the reality of today, and hope that time will solve this problem for us”.
