Copenhagen Climate Summit:  A Cold Maldives President

- By. Dr. Abdul ruff Colachal

Combating climate change is the top most global challenge - more than so-called fictitious terrorism which has been unleashed by the big powers to advance their global interests, including energy, land-sea routes and arms trade. But the big world has not taken the issue as seriously as it demands. The IST/GST (International or Global state terrorism) has caused non-state terrorism and the perpetrators are controlled by the GSTs themselves. Reckless use of fusels and US/NATO led terror wars have increased the phase of possible climate change causing serious problems to the island nations, possible most of them would be drowned in the seas. The largest atmospheric polluters –criminal states, USA, China and India are cruelly playing with the lives of the island nations. In South Asia, Maldives and Sri Lanka are the most threatened nations because of pollution trends. World leaders keep meeting at summits, but they never approached the issue serious enough to find reliable solutions.

Officially, world leaders at the climate summit are aiming to create a new agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. However, the transnational capitalists are engaged in double-talks angering many island nations, including Maldives. The president of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed is unhappy about the cold approach of the world powers towards impending climatic disaster. Nasheed feels the world powers are wasting time and money on summits which really don’t result in anything positively. President has said that, even though his country is under threat from climate change, he cannot afford to go to a summit on the issue.  President Nasheed said the Maldives needed to be defended from the effects of global warming and rising sea levels. He clarified his nation would only go to the December talks in Copenhagen if someone offered to pay for the trip. But he added that the country would have to do much of the work itself.

Climate summits are now more or less ritual exercises to meet friends, have sumptuous intercontinental foods/cosines and pose for group photos. President Nasheed, a former human rights activist who came to power 10 months ago, said climate change summits were at times "childish" because countries tended to blame each other over past misdeeds rather than think practically. He hoped the Copenhagen summit would come out with positive plans, like renewable energy promotion, rather than stressing what he called negative ones like capping carbon emissions.

No part of the Maldives island state's territory lies more than 2.5m above sea level, and 50 of its islands are already severely eroding. The president said this showed that climate change was not just an environment issue, but a security issue as well. "I keep saying this: if the Europeans thought it was important to defend Poland in the '30s and '40s - in any threat you really have to look after your frontline states. Now, the Maldives is a frontline state.

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Islam is the state religion. The Maldivians are a mixed people, speaking an Indo-European language called Divehi (the official language); Arabic, Hindi, and English are also spoken. The first settlers, it is generally believed, were Dravidian and Sinhalese peoples from southern India and Sri Lanka. Traders from Arab countries, Malaya, Madagascar, Indonesia, and China visited the islands through the centuries. With the exception of those living in Male, the only relatively large settlement in the country, the inhabitants of the Maldives live in villages on small islands in scattered atolls. Only about 20 of the islands have more than 1,000 inhabitants, and the southern islands are more densely populated than the northern ones. The birth rate for the Maldives is somewhat higher than the world average, but the death rate is lower. About one-third of the total population is under 15 years of age. One of the poorest countries in the world, the Maldives has a developing economy based on fishing, tourism, boatbuilding, and boat repairing. The gross national product (GNP) per capita is among the lowest in the world.

According to tradition, Islam was adopted in 1153 ce. Ibn Baṭṭûṭah, a notable North African traveler, resided there during the mid-1340s and described conditions at that time, remarking disapprovingly on the freedom of the women—a feature that has been noticeable throughout Maldivian history. The Portuguese forcibly established themselves in Male from 1558 until their expulsion in 1573. In the 17th century the islands were a sultanate under the protection of the Dutch rulers of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and, after the British took possession of Ceylon in 1796, the islands became a British protectorate, a status formalized in 1887. In 1932, before which time most of the administrative powers rested with sultans or sultanas, the first democratic constitution was proclaimed, the country remaining a sultanate. A republic was proclaimed in 1953, but later that year the country reverted to a sultanate. In 1965 the Maldives Islands attained full political independence from the British, and in 1968 a new republic was inaugurated and the sultanate abolished. The last British troops left on March 29, 1976, the date thereafter celebrated in the Maldives as Independence Day. Ibrahim Nasr, the country’s first president, was succeeded in 1978 by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was reelected to his sixth consecutive term in 2003. The Maldives became a member of the Commonwealth in 1982. In December 2004 the Maldives was damaged by a large tsunami caused by a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean off Indonesia. Scores of people were killed, and much property with trillions of dollars was damaged.

Today, the Maldives' largest industry is tourism, accounting for 28% of GDP and more than 60% of the Maldives' foreign exchange receipts. Fishing, the second leading sector, remains the main occupation of the people and the government gives special priority to the development of the fisheries sector. In late December 2004, the major tsunami left more than 100 dead, 12,000 displaced, and property damage exceeding $400 million. As a result of the tsunami, the GDP contracted by about 3.6% in 2005. A rebound in tourism, post-tsunami reconstruction, and development of new resorts helped the economy recover quickly and showed a 18% increase on 2006. 2007 estimates show the Maldives enjoy the highest GDP per capita $4,600 (2007 est) amongst south Asian countries excluding rich Arab Gulf countries. Over 90% of government tax revenue comes from import duties and tourism-related taxes. For many centuries the Maldivian economy was entirely dependent on fishing and other marine products.

Right from the time he assumed presidency last year, Nasheed took climate change as a very challenge facing his island nations and embarked upon undertaking steps to protect his nation from nature’s wrath invited by the a few pollution countries, apart from a series of measures to strengthen economy of Maldives. Addressing the two newly appointed High Commissioners to UK and India, President Nasheed said recently that his country’s foreign policy was undergoing some changes, with economic and commercial diplomacy as its main focus. Furthermore, he said seeking foreign investments was a top priority of the government and that foreign missions would need to work to attract foreign investments to the country. Maldives would strive to provide required locally grown agricultural products and reduce imports of food items.

The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, started with his Green Maldive plan and before he started with the implementation of 155 large wind turbines, half a square kilometre of rooftop solar panels, and a biomass plant burning coconut husks. Solar Botanics is about Energy Harvesting Trees that convert light, heat and wind energy into clean electricity. Our trees are looking absolutely natural and will fit in with the Island community, not polluting the landscape values, or damaging the eco systems, basically in tune with nature.

Besides the aesthetical values of our trees, they can desalinate seawater, manage water pump systems, provide shade, cooling the air, and function as noise and windbreak barriers. The trees can power waste water plants and much more. One tree delivers over 6000 kWh per year, reducing the carbon footprint of the Maldives by 4500 kg of CO2 annually at a cost of 14.000 USD per tree. Now, this is a argument for the Maldives government not to install Wind turbines and other renewable energy systems, that will be blight on the islands, and an environmental disaster that will affect the economics of tourism.

Maldives is planning a major clean-up of its technology and the president said parliament will shortly consider a "green tax" of three dollars per tourist per day. Recently, President Mohamed Nasheed announced plans for the Maldives to become the world’s first carbon neutral country on 15 March and has established an advisory council at the President’s Office to spearhead the government’s efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. The Presidential Advisory Council on Climate Change will also recommend adaptation measures that the Maldives can introduce to protect the country from rising sea levels and is expected to provide expert advice on how the Maldives can cut its greenhouse gas emissions to become the world’s first carbon neutral country in ten years. The council will also be supported by a group of international climate and energy experts. A switch from oil to 100% renewable energy production lies at the heart of the Maldives’ plan. The President said that the government hoped that other countries would take example from the Maldives’ initiative and galvanize themselves into taking much-needed radical action.

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One of the smallest countries in Islamic world in South Asian, Maldives elected a new President recently, is an ideal place to implement Islamic tenets and lead the rest of Islamic world, including Arab world, towards greater cohesiveness, purpose, and solemnity.  Maldives is surging ahead for a true democratic order in the Islamic society. Stressing that on 28 October 2008, the people of Maldives voted for democratic change, he noted the peaceful transition of power after the first free and fair democratic election in the Maldives. Furthermore, he said sustaining the peaceful democratic transition was now a greater challenge than economic situation. He also said that to consolidate democracy it was of utmost importance to deliver the pledges made to the people. Reflecting on the status of the country when he assumed office, he said despite the many challenges faced by his government, many steps have already been taken to face these challenges. Speaking in this regard, he said the government’s economic policy was to reduce the size and expenditure of the government as well as to corporatize the state owned companies. President Nasheed also thanked the international community for their assistance and cooperation in bringing democratic reforms to the Maldives.

Not that Maldives cannot fund the President’s trip to Copenhagen for the December Climate summit- not at all! But the president only warns against global mischief by chief polluters. rightly thinks that amount if spent would be a waste expenditure that his country cannot afford to make. Presidents and premiers are comfortably living and conveniently sue the country’s scare foreign exchanges on foreign waste trips only ot enjoy life with others. Any leader would happily use the national resources on foreign trips but , perhaps, Nasheed is the first Muslim leader who does not want to waste the resources of his nation on wasteful expenditure.

The point is G8 plus summits don’t seriously back a joint declaration that would set tough global targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by mid-century, and reaffirm the need for a strong successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. But USA, Canada, UK, China and India are unserious abut any definite controlling mechanism to arrest the global emissions. However, Germany wants the G-8 countries to commit to do their "fair share" to limit the rise in temperatures this century to 2 C. Germany also wants to set a target of halving emissions by 2050 compared with 1990 levels. In March, the EU pledged to slash carbon emissions by 20 per cent, compared with 1990 levels, by 2020. Canada has also committed to cutting emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. But the United States, allied with Japan and Canada, wants to remove any reference to specific targets or timetables. In effect, the leaders of the world's richest countries are sparring over how to tackle global warming after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. As a result nothing tangible came out of the summit. It was as usual an economic summit for global profits.

The advanced nations are causing climate change by recklessly polluting the atmosphere deliberately harming the earth’s natural conditions. What Maldives is embarking upon at home to combat any possible climate change is fine, but what is more important is global response: the G8 plus must be taking emissions cut project quite sincerely and on a time frame. Time is indeed running out for the world!

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Specialist on State Terrorism

Independent Researcher in International Affairs,

the only Indian to have gone through entire India, a fraud and terror nation in South Asia.