The most important step towards combating climate change is for wealthier countries with more economic and financial means to invest in climate resilience and adaptation, Maldives’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Ali Naseer Mohamed said Thursday.
During an interview with the CGTN UN, the UN Envoy highlighted that Maldives has been calling on the global community to help the Maldives and other small island developing states to protect their biodiversity, to take immediate measures to
reduce carbon carbon emissions and help countries to build resilience since the first ever small states conference in 1989.
Ali Naseer pointed out that building resilience is the common challenge faced by every country.
“When a country is wealthier and economically more powerful they're able to set aside large amounts of money to build their resilience. But when a country is economically weaker and their economy is smaller like the Maldives, the amount of funds that we have to set aside on building resilience is far greater,” he explained.
According to Ali Naseer, Maldives has been continuously advocating for more funding for building resilience precisely for that fact.
“We remain hopeful that they [wealthier nations] would be able to find a solution in which they would be able to help other countries and help themselves too and invest in resilience. We believe it's the most important step that needs to be taken,” he said.
Speaking on Maldives’ pressing need for climate adaptation, Ali Naseer said the ocean is part of its culture and its people have an emotional attachment to the ocean, describing its biodiversity as “sacred” to the Maldivian people.
However, the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 proved that nature cannot be taken for granted, he added.
So in the aftermath of the devastating disaster, Maldives has brought radical changes to the design and construction aimed at developing safe islands, Ali Naseer said.
He said with such efforts through wider multilateral cooperation, the Indian Ocean now has early warning mechanisms in place in case of a future disaster.
“With the help of new technology we are able to disseminate information far more rapidly through mobile applications and with the help of early information we hope
that we would be able to minimise the damage to infrastructure and hopefully prevent any loss of life,” Ali Naseer said.
Maldives remains a vocal advocate for small island developing states in the global arena, as it seeks to push larger countries to increase climate funding, cut-down on emissions and invest in green energy.