Maldives take a climate lead

Abstract

The Maldives hopes to be the first state to be carbon neutral but threats from sea-level rise still dominate. Nigel Williams reports. The Maldives hopes to be the first state to be carbon neutral but threats from sea-level rise still dominate. Nigel Williams reports. The Maldives carried out one of the most dramatic stunts ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit last December: wearing full diving gear, ministers held a cabinet meeting on the seabed. The aim was to highlight the vulnerability of the Indian Ocean archipelago — much of the land is less than 1.5 metres above sea level. And this year, ahead of the Cancún climate talks, alarm is growing about the threat of sea-level rise, but the Maldives also announced that it is aiming by 2020 to become the first carbon-neutral country. At a news conference last month, the president, Mohamed Nasheed, said that an audit had been carried out covering all 310,000 citizens. The results estimated that tourist flights to the islands emitted as much greenhouse gases as all of the population. The audit is a prelude to an investment plan next year in solar, wind and wave power and to the introduction of limits to fuel imports to less than 15 per cent of GDP. Carried out by auditors BeCitizen, it estimated that the Maldivians emitted 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2009 through electricity generation, transport, waste and fishing. For emissions that will be covered by the carbon-neutral plan, Maldivians produce 4.1 tonnes per person. This compares with 5.5 tonnes per person in China and 23.5 tonnes per person in the US. The plan is that any emissions above the carbon-neutral targets will be offset by the increased planting of mangroves and purchase of carbon credits. “Achieving carbon neutrality by 2020 is possible,” said Flora Bernard, associate director of BeCitizen. Only a few countries have set goals of becoming carbon neutral, including Costa Rica and Norway, but, if the Maldives plans work out, it could be the first. While the Maldives is unsurprisingly so concerned about sea-level change, as it affects the whole population and its tourist industry, a new report, commissioned by the UN Development Programme, with British and Caribbean partners, highlights the threat to other tropical islands. Released at the Cancún meeting, it estimates in detail the impacts of rising sea level on the 15 member Caribbean states of the Caricom regional community. While many of the islands are mountainous, the report highlights that much of the population, infrastructure, agriculture and economy are in the low-lying areas. A rise of one metre, which is widely considered possible later this century is estimated to lead to damage of around $187 billion. The report was carried out at the University of Oxford. The authors also included insurance experts who calculated the huge potential costs of future sea-level rises. At Cancún, the Association of Small Island States (Aosis), of which the Maldives is a member, called for an enormous insurance policy funded by the developed nations to help these small states to pay for future damage from rising sea levels. The states at risk would pay a premium but payout for damage would largely be met by developed countries. “We are the most vulnerable countries in the world, although pollute the least,” Antonio Lima from the Cape Verde islands, vice-chairman of Aosis, told the Cancún meeting. “We want to survive and to survive we need solidarity from those who can do something about the weather.”