Isramart : President urges vulnerable countries to form carbon neutral bloc

Isramart news:
President Mohamed Nasheed called on vulnerable countries today to form a carbon neutral bloc ahead of the UN landmark climate conference in Copenhagen this December.

Addressing the ten participants at the Climate Vulnerable Forum, the president said a group of countries committed to going carbon neutral would send a loud message to the rest of the world.

“If vulnerable, developing countries make a commitment to carbon neutrality, those opposed to change have nowhere left to hide,” said Nasheed. “If those with the least start doing the most, what excuse can the rich have for continuing inaction?”

Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Kiribati, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania are all participating in the two-day summit at Bandos Island Resort.

The president’s comments come days after the last round of negotiations in Barcelona, Spain, resulted in an impasse between rich and poor countries.

While the developing world argued rich nations should make drastic cuts of 40 per cent in emissions compared to 1990 levels to compensate for more than a hundred years of industrialisation, the latter were loth to commit.

Speaking today at Bandos Island Resort, Nasheed said a carbon-neutral bloc of countries could change the outcome at Copenhagen. He added that countries always waited for others to make commitments first.

‘This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide. We don’t want a global suicide pact. And we will not sign a global suicide pact, in Copenhagen or anywhere,” he said.

“And so today, I invite some of the most vulnerable nations in the world to join a global survival pact instead…I hope you will join me in deciding to stand.”

In March, the president announced ambitious plans to make the Maldives the first carbon neutral country in the world by swapping diesel for renewable energy and offsetting carbon emissions, predominantly from aviation.

At today’s summit, Mark Lynas, the British environmentalist who helped put together the carbon neutral blueprint, gave a presentation of the plan as a potential model for other participants.

The Maldives’ US$1.1 billion plan envisions 160 wind turbines generating 650 mWh of electricity, half a square kilometre of solar panels and a biomass plant, backed up by battery storage.

Although the participants are among the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, they have been experiencing the worst effects of climate change, including drought, water shortages, desertification, floods and rising sea levels.

“Nepal’s likely concern is a diminishing freshwater supply from melting glaciers, for Bangladesh it will be flooding and sea level rise. For Kiribati, it’s sea level rise and the potential extinction of their nation. Kenya has just faced possible the worst drought in a quarter of a century,” Lynas told Minivan News.

As one of the lowest-lying countries in the world, the Maldives is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels.

In 2007, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that sea level rises of up to 59cm would submerge many of the Maldives’ 1,192 islands within a century.

Other participants at today’s summit, such as the Pacific island nation, Kiribati, and low-lying Bangladesh face the same challenge and have floated similar solutions.

Not long after coming to power, Nasheed announced his intention to set up a sovereign fund in case rising sea levels meant relocation for the population of the Maldives. Three months later, Kiribati President Anote Tong said he was also looking to buy land elsewhere.

Addressing participants at the end of the first round of interventions, Mohamed Aslam, minister of environment, housing and transport, reinforced the president’s plea for carbon neutrality.

Aslam said climate change was not a subject up for compromise. “It may be good to change even the term negotiation. It implies that there’s room to give in, room to take away. But the science is too clear,” he said.

The minister said while climate change would affect all nations, developing and developed alike, the latter had the financial and technological resources to face up to the challenge of global warming.

“It’s the developed countries who are responsible. They brought us to this stage. But what should we do? Should we wait? It’s about time we decide our own future, take control of our destiny,” he said.

“I hope in the sessions that follow, we will be able to decide the path that we need to be on and say but you need to assist us. This path is nothing new. It will take us to the goals set by Kyoto.”