Low-lying Maldives seeks easier funding to battle waves
by AFP Staff Writers
Male, Maldives (AFP) May 25, 2024
The Maldives on Saturday demanded international funding to battle rising sea levels, saying the low-lying Indian Ocean archipelago was being unfairly excluded from the most generous support measures.
“The Maldives is liable for just 0.003 percent of global emissions, but is one of the first countries to endure the existential consequences of the climate crisis,” President Mohamed Muizzu wrote in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
“Wealthier nations have a moral responsibility to communities like ours.”
His comments came ahead of a once-a-decade conference of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) — many of them known as luxury tourism destinations but threatened by rising sea levels — he will co-chair in Antigua and Barbuda, which opens Monday.
SIDS receive “only about 14 percent of the finance that the least developed countries receive”, he said.
According to the IMF, the Maldives has a higher GDP per capita than Chile, Mexico, Malaysia or China, but Muizzu called gross domestic product a “legacy metric”.
“Thanks to the Maldives’ healthy tourism industry, we are ranked as an emerging economy and therefore shut out from the cheaper financing set aside for the lowest income countries.”
Muizzu has said that his country needs about $500 million to mitigate the effects of climate change and the tourism-dependent economy was unable to raise the money on its own.
The first SIDS meeting was in 1994, five years after Maldives’ then-president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom warned that his atoll nation of 1,192 tiny coral islets faced extinction if sea levels rose by a metre (3.3 feet).
Gayoom successfully initiated a land reclamation to build an artificial island two metres above sea level and twice the size of his congested two-square-kilometre (0.8-square-mile) capital island Male.
Muizzu, who was elected in September, has unveiled plans for a bigger man-made island with 30,000 apartments, “Ras Male”, to battle rising waves.
But the project was not eligible for climate funding as it was classed as infrastructure work, he lamented.
Muizzu is seen as pro-Beijing and according to government officials, much of the construction work is expected to be carried out by Chinese firms.
Related Links
Water News – Science, Technology and Politics
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 – Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled “by Staff Writers” include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report’s information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.
>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : IndoDaily – https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Low-lying_Maldives_seeks_easier_funding_to_battle_waves_999.html
