Maldives: Many islands will disappear, despite COP 21 agreement
Discussion details
Abdullahi Majeed, the Maldives' Minister of State for Environment & Energy, fears that many island states will be wiped off the map, even if an ambitious agreement is reached at COP 21.
The next international Climate Conference will be held in Paris in December 2015. How are the Maldives preparing their national contribution for this event?
“We began work on our national contribution for Paris Climate 2015 (COP 21) six months ago, with the help of the Global Environment Facility. We hope to have it ready by August or early September. At the moment we spend a lot of money on oil; nearly 30% of our GDP. But oil is a double-edged sword for us, because it is expensive and polluting. We hope to develop solar energy to produce 30% of our daily energy needs.”
You have taken part in many international climate negotiations. Are you optimistic about the Paris conference?
“Over the last three years, we have held discussion after discussion. We hope the document on the negotiating table today will lead to a binding action plan in Paris.When the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, the small island states had called for a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 25%, and we ended up with an objective of 5%! Today, scientists agree on the fact that greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by at least 60 or 70% in order to stabilise the effects of climate change, like rising sea levels and melting ice caps. But the best we can hope for this time is an objective of 40%.”
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/development-policy/maldives-many-islan…
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