At a lecture by Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives, at Free University Berlin on 11 March 2010, the centre stage topics included the latest developments in climate change negotiations and the repercussions of climate change on his own country.



A group of low-lying islands, the Maldives are particularly threatened by climate change. Rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are already forcing the inhabitants of a dozen of the 1200 islands to move. Nasheed emphasized the high social costs of these relocations: There is a growing opposition within the affected population against the loss of their homes and parts of their cultural identity. He also highlighted the massive ecological damage of climate change: "Of course we can relocate people, but where will the butterflies go?" These problems are likely to increase as climate change intensifies. Purchasing land outside the country’s national borders is likely to become a last resort for future survival, said Nasheed.



Yet, relocations have to be avoided as much as possible. The country’s economic development plays a key role in its ability to finance costly adaptation measures. In the long term, the restoration of coral reefs offers great potential and would be the country’s 'first line of defence' against extreme weather events. However, also the utilization of concrete continues to be indispensable in order to protect the island’s coastlines.



Against this background, Nasheed expressed his concern about the slow progress made in climate change negotiations. He judged the current framework to be ineffective, as it allows only for agreements based on the lowest common denominator. This hinders any future progress. Nasheed identified yet another obstacle for an effective agreement: The mistrust of the older generations in developing countries towards the industrial world as a result of imperialism and colonialism. This has led to an exaggerated focus on compensation payments for past emissions, which hampers the achievement of a common agreement. Yet, much more ambitious emissions reductions are needed than are currently being discussed. After all, every country would benefit from effective mitigation—the Maldives might be the first victim of climate change, but it certainly will not be the last. (Stephan Wolters)



The keynote speech of President Nasheed at the Free University in Berlin is available at

http://www.fu-berlin.de/campusleben/videos/2010/100311_malediven_vortrag/index.html



For more information on the demands of small island states in the context of climate change, please see http://www.sidsnet.org/aosis/index.html

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, April 2010