Maldives hosts meeting on climate change
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The Maldives is hosting an innovative meeting of developing and rich world countries that want strong international action on climate change, the Maidivian presidential office said on Saturday in a statement.
According to the statement issued by the office, the "Cartagena Group/Dialog for Progressive Action" is being held Saturday and Sunday at Bandos Island resort near the capital Male.
"A key aim of group is to bridge the divide left after the acrimonious Copenhagen Climate Change negotiations in December and bring like-minded countries together before next UN climate summit in Mexico," said the statement.
The Maldives'meeting is the second such gathering of the Cartegena Group, which was established shortly after Copenhagen. It is an informal space open to all countries who want an ambitious outcome in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and who are committed, domestically, to becoming or remaining low carbon.
In the keynote address on Saturday morning, Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed noted that the forum includes countries from each region in the world.
"It is the ability to come together as friends that is the great value of this Dialogue for Progressive Action," Nasheed said.
The president said that the "disappointments" of the Copenhagen Summit were a reflection of "global realpolitik" in which nations prioritized perceived short-term economic gains over the long-term health of the world's climate.
"I can not accept that the Maldives must disappear, so others can carry on polluting," President Nasheed said.
Stressing the importance of establishing trust and cooperation, Nasheed said "deep divisions" obstructed progress at Copenhagen.
The president said re-establishing confidence "must start in Cancun (of Mexico) by reaching agreement across all core issues, especially the inter-related issues of mitigation, finance, and Monitoring, Reporting and Verification."
The president further challenged nations to change the way they present the issue of climate change action to their domestic electorates.
"Cutting carbon should not be considered a burden that will destroy jobs and hamper economic growth. Instead, going green should be seen as the greatest economic opportunity since the Industrial Revolution," he said.
Countries participating at the Cartagena Group/Dialog for Progressive Action include Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Malawi, the Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Samoa, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Britain.
Being an archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands just 1.5 meters above sea level, the Maldives is grappling with the very likely possibility to go under water if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels.
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