Maldives Head Pleads His Cause in Copenhagen

It’s probably one of the most famous cabinet meetings to ever take place in a developing country. In mid-October, the Maldives’ cabinet met under water. The pictures of President Mohamed Nasheed and his ministers went around the world. There was barely a news agency or TV station that didn’t cover it.

Although it might have seemed like a commercial for a diving holiday on the atolls of the Indian Ocean, it was in actual fact a cry for help. Climate change is threatening the very survival of the country’s thousand plus islands. At their highest point, the islands are two-and-a-half metres above sea level.

In his speech at Copenhagen, Mohamed Nasheed explained what consequences the greenhouse effect and rising sea level would have on his country and said it was a “matter of life and death.”

“The science is very clear. Temperature rises above 1.5 degrees will submerge my country, dissolve our coral reefs, turn our oceans to acid, and destabilise the planet’s climate.”

A clear message

His message, as always, was clear. He never feels the need to hide behind jargon when it comes to talking about climate change, as some of his counterparts do.

That’s why Mohamed Nasheed -- the president of an island nation with 400,000 inhabitants -- is so popular with the media.

But Nasheed did not shot to rock star fame on his own. His adviser is Bill McKibben, an American environmentalist and the founder of the international climate campaign 350.org.

McKibben wants the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere to be reduced to 350 parts per million. That’s the level scientists have identified as a safe upper limit -- a limit that would restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade.

But it’s an ambitious goal and most industrialised nations are against it. “The United States say they oppose the 350 target because the technology does not exist to make it,” said Nasheed in Copenhagen. “

I would like to point out that when President Kennedy announced that the United States want to go to the moon, there was no technology to back the president but very soon, in fact seven years later, man landed on the moon.”

Hope is a driving force

Hope is one of Nasheed’s driving forces. Four years ago, he was in jail and this was the 14th time since 1989. But he never gave up his struggle against Maumoon Abdul Gavoom’s dictatorship and in the end he won.

Just one year ago, the 42-year-old Sunni Muslim became the first freely-elected president of his country.

The president is also a keen diver and that’s what has made him aware of the damages being caused by the bleaching of the coral reefs. He knows that this could threaten the Maldives as a tourist destination.

So he wants to set a good example to the world. The Maldives hopes to be C02 neutral by 2020 -- thanks to wind and solar energy.

Anni, as Nasheed is known on the Maldives, ended his speech with a plea for the future generations: “I have two daughters. I want to see grandchildren. If we continue business as usual, we will not be able to see grandchildren.“

Author: Johannes Beck/Anne Thomas
Editor: Thomas Bärthlein