As a first step, cooperation agreements were signed in the fields of tourism, health, and education and culture.
On Thursday, September 24, in New York, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman and his counterpart from the Republic of Maldives signed three cooperation agreements in the fields of tourism, health, and education and culture.
Bilateral ties between the two countries have been put on hold for several years, and these agreements are considered a first step towards normalizing the relationship.
Source: mfa.gov.il
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Maldives urges UN Member States to take critical action to combat climate change
The President of the Maldives implored world leaders gathered at the United Nations to urgently help the group of islands he governs in the middle of the Indian Ocean fight the menace of global warming, in a message to the General Assembly today.
“The threats posed to the Maldives from climate change are well-known,” President Mohamed Nasheed told the second day of the Assembly’s annual high-level debate at UN Headquarters in New York.
As beaches are lost to rising seas, houses to storm surges, jobs as fish stocks dwindle, and lives lost to more frequent extreme weather events, the scattering of islands becomes harder and harder to govern “until a point is reached when we must consider abandoning our homeland,” said Mr. Nasheed.
Calling on world leaders “to protect the future of front-line countries like the Maldives,” he said an ambitious new treaty on greenhouse gas reductions must be reached at December’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, which seeks to limit average global temperature increases to less than 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.
“To do otherwise would be to sign the death warrant for the 300,000 Maldivians,” stressed Mr. Nasheed.
“But, the Maldives is determined to do what we can to survive,” he said referring to the archipelago’s commitment to be the first carbon-neutral country in 10 years time.
“In order to do that, we are determined to formulate a survival-kit, a carbon-neutral manual that would enable others to replicate in order that all of us together might just about save ourselves from climate catastrophe.”
Mr. Nasheed also hoped to invite some of the States most affected by climate change to the Maldives this November to “reinforce our determination to leave no stone unturned to ensure our survival.”
In addition, he said that the nascent democracy, which held its first ever multi-party presidential elections last year needed help from Member States in consolidating democracy and establishing a secure, prosperous and equitable society for the country.
Mr. Nasheed said he was thankful to be the first democratically-elected President of the Maldives to attend the General Assembly debate, many of which in the past he had spent bound up in a cell for his beliefs about freedom.
Source: un.org
World leaders must seize historic opportunity on climate change: Maldivian president
Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has called upon world leaders gathering in New York to seize the historic opportunity before the Copenhagen climate summit to be held in December, the Maldivian president's office said Wednesday on its official website.
Nasheed on Tuesday told the the UN climate summit, which is the largest high-level climate conference ever held that the world leaders must "discard the habits that have led to 20 years of complacency and broken promises on climate change."
Nasheed said the solution to climate change lied in major three areas which include:
-- The developed countries accepting ambitious and binding emission reduction targets consistent with an average temperature increase of below 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels;
-- The developing world being ready to jump, by accepting binding emission reduction targets under the principle of common but differentiated responsibility;
-- The developed world providing new, additional and predictable adaptation financing.
Nasheed was among the eight heads of state or government invited by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to speak at the UN Summit on Climate Change.
The Maldives is one of the world's lowest-lying countries, with about 300,000 people living mainly on land less than two meters above sea level.
Scientists have warned recently that rising seas caused by climate change could engulf the Maldives and other low-lying nations this century.
Source: news.xinhuanet.com
Nasheed on Tuesday told the the UN climate summit, which is the largest high-level climate conference ever held that the world leaders must "discard the habits that have led to 20 years of complacency and broken promises on climate change."
Nasheed said the solution to climate change lied in major three areas which include:
-- The developed countries accepting ambitious and binding emission reduction targets consistent with an average temperature increase of below 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels;
-- The developing world being ready to jump, by accepting binding emission reduction targets under the principle of common but differentiated responsibility;
-- The developed world providing new, additional and predictable adaptation financing.
Nasheed was among the eight heads of state or government invited by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to speak at the UN Summit on Climate Change.
The Maldives is one of the world's lowest-lying countries, with about 300,000 people living mainly on land less than two meters above sea level.
Scientists have warned recently that rising seas caused by climate change could engulf the Maldives and other low-lying nations this century.
Source: news.xinhuanet.com
Maldives can't be carbon neutral without killing tourism
In the 1960s a United Nations report warned the Maldives that, sadly, it was unlikely to attract tourists.
Not much grows on lumps of coral in the Indian Ocean apart from coconuts and fish, the report pointed out: the Maldives is largely dependent on imports and the nearest ports are hundreds of miles away. Few of its 1,000-odd scattered islands even had electricity. Yet within ten years, the Maldives had established the reputation it has now, as a holiday paradise for honeymooners, scuba divers and the super-rich.
On Tuesday, the tiny country of 350,000 people once again showed it can punch above its weight. The Maldivian President, Mohamed Nasheed, shared a billing with Barack Obama and Hu Jintao at the United Nations General Assembly, where he pleaded the cause of small island states at risk from climate change. In many news outlets, it was Nasheed who made the headlines.
In many respects the Maldives has always been the little nation that could. Despite its minuscule population and strategic location, it has never been colonised (it peacefully dismissed the British, who had made it a protectorate, in 1965). It has retained its unique language and script, and hung on to its cultural identity while incorporating Islam, elements from African religions, black magic, Indian cooking and the occasional British naval tradition. In 2008 it made a peaceful transition to democracy and was hailed as an example to other, more troubled Muslim nations.
Now, if Nasheed and many climate scientists are to be believed, it faces the greatest challenge of all. Its highest point is 2.4 metres above sea level and according to gloomier predictions this could be submerged within 100 years if man-made climate change continues.
Nasheed, a former journalist, has since his election made the Maldives a mouthpiece for the millions around the world who may be at risk (who listens to Kiribati or Tonga, or even Bangladesh?). At first, in the euphoria that followed democracy’s arrival, Nasheed suggested that he might set out to buy a new country on higher ground. Consternation followed from investors and locals, so he moved to more positive plans, promising that the country would lead the way by becoming carbon neutral in ten years. It has since signed an agreement to pioneer carbon capture technology by trapping carbon dioxide in burned coconuts.
Yet there is a contradiction at the heart of the Maldives campaign, which is powered as much by chutzpah and an eye for a good story as it is by any long-term plan (indeed, some scientists cast doubt on whether the country is at risk at all).
Tourism directly and indirectly generates 70 per cent of its GDP, and although renewable energy and carbon capture are wise areas in which to diversify, the Maldives will never ask the tourists to stop coming — which means it will never ask the planes to stop flying. With new technology it may be possible to power a resort on renewable energy, but green aircraft are many years away.
To stop the planes would be to shut off the engines of development that have made the Maldives South Asia’s richest country. So its rhetoric and new schemes must be tempered with a large dose of exhaust fume-scented realism. And in this respect, Mohamed Nasheed is little different from Barack Obama or Hu Jintao.
Source: timesonline.co.uk
Maldives can't be carbon neutral without killing tourism
In the 1960s a United Nations report warned the Maldives that, sadly, it was unlikely to attract tourists.
Not much grows on lumps of coral in the Indian Ocean apart from coconuts and fish, the report pointed out: the Maldives is largely dependent on imports and the nearest ports are hundreds of miles away. Few of its 1,000-odd scattered islands even had electricity. Yet within ten years, the Maldives had established the reputation it has now, as a holiday paradise for honeymooners, scuba divers and the super-rich.
On Tuesday, the tiny country of 350,000 people once again showed it can punch above its weight. The Maldivian President, Mohamed Nasheed, shared a billing with Barack Obama and Hu Jintao at the United Nations General Assembly, where he pleaded the cause of small island states at risk from climate change. In many news outlets, it was Nasheed who made the headlines.
In many respects the Maldives has always been the little nation that could. Despite its minuscule population and strategic location, it has never been colonised (it peacefully dismissed the British, who had made it a protectorate, in 1965). It has retained its unique language and script, and hung on to its cultural identity while incorporating Islam, elements from African religions, black magic, Indian cooking and the occasional British naval tradition. In 2008 it made a peaceful transition to democracy and was hailed as an example to other, more troubled Muslim nations.
Now, if Nasheed and many climate scientists are to be believed, it faces the greatest challenge of all. Its highest point is 2.4 metres above sea level and according to gloomier predictions this could be submerged within 100 years if man-made climate change continues.
Nasheed, a former journalist, has since his election made the Maldives a mouthpiece for the millions around the world who may be at risk (who listens to Kiribati or Tonga, or even Bangladesh?). At first, in the euphoria that followed democracy’s arrival, Nasheed suggested that he might set out to buy a new country on higher ground. Consternation followed from investors and locals, so he moved to more positive plans, promising that the country would lead the way by becoming carbon neutral in ten years. It has since signed an agreement to pioneer carbon capture technology by trapping carbon dioxide in burned coconuts.
Yet there is a contradiction at the heart of the Maldives campaign, which is powered as much by chutzpah and an eye for a good story as it is by any long-term plan (indeed, some scientists cast doubt on whether the country is at risk at all).
Tourism directly and indirectly generates 70 per cent of its GDP, and although renewable energy and carbon capture are wise areas in which to diversify, the Maldives will never ask the tourists to stop coming — which means it will never ask the planes to stop flying. With new technology it may be possible to power a resort on renewable energy, but green aircraft are many years away.
To stop the planes would be to shut off the engines of development that have made the Maldives South Asia’s richest country. So its rhetoric and new schemes must be tempered with a large dose of exhaust fume-scented realism. And in this respect, Mohamed Nasheed is little different from Barack Obama or Hu Jintao.
Source: timesonline.co.uk
Not much grows on lumps of coral in the Indian Ocean apart from coconuts and fish, the report pointed out: the Maldives is largely dependent on imports and the nearest ports are hundreds of miles away. Few of its 1,000-odd scattered islands even had electricity. Yet within ten years, the Maldives had established the reputation it has now, as a holiday paradise for honeymooners, scuba divers and the super-rich.
On Tuesday, the tiny country of 350,000 people once again showed it can punch above its weight. The Maldivian President, Mohamed Nasheed, shared a billing with Barack Obama and Hu Jintao at the United Nations General Assembly, where he pleaded the cause of small island states at risk from climate change. In many news outlets, it was Nasheed who made the headlines.
In many respects the Maldives has always been the little nation that could. Despite its minuscule population and strategic location, it has never been colonised (it peacefully dismissed the British, who had made it a protectorate, in 1965). It has retained its unique language and script, and hung on to its cultural identity while incorporating Islam, elements from African religions, black magic, Indian cooking and the occasional British naval tradition. In 2008 it made a peaceful transition to democracy and was hailed as an example to other, more troubled Muslim nations.
Now, if Nasheed and many climate scientists are to be believed, it faces the greatest challenge of all. Its highest point is 2.4 metres above sea level and according to gloomier predictions this could be submerged within 100 years if man-made climate change continues.
Nasheed, a former journalist, has since his election made the Maldives a mouthpiece for the millions around the world who may be at risk (who listens to Kiribati or Tonga, or even Bangladesh?). At first, in the euphoria that followed democracy’s arrival, Nasheed suggested that he might set out to buy a new country on higher ground. Consternation followed from investors and locals, so he moved to more positive plans, promising that the country would lead the way by becoming carbon neutral in ten years. It has since signed an agreement to pioneer carbon capture technology by trapping carbon dioxide in burned coconuts.
Yet there is a contradiction at the heart of the Maldives campaign, which is powered as much by chutzpah and an eye for a good story as it is by any long-term plan (indeed, some scientists cast doubt on whether the country is at risk at all).
Tourism directly and indirectly generates 70 per cent of its GDP, and although renewable energy and carbon capture are wise areas in which to diversify, the Maldives will never ask the tourists to stop coming — which means it will never ask the planes to stop flying. With new technology it may be possible to power a resort on renewable energy, but green aircraft are many years away.
To stop the planes would be to shut off the engines of development that have made the Maldives South Asia’s richest country. So its rhetoric and new schemes must be tempered with a large dose of exhaust fume-scented realism. And in this respect, Mohamed Nasheed is little different from Barack Obama or Hu Jintao.
Source: timesonline.co.uk
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
We are sinking, say Maldive islanders, but there is still time to save the world
The President of the Maldives, the Indian Ocean islands threatened with extinction by rising sea levels, told the United Nations climate-change summit yesterday that the country’s appeals for help had fallen on deaf ears for 20 years.
“Once or twice a year we are invited to attend an important climate change event such as this one — often as a keynote speaker,” Mohammed Nasheed told world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York.
“On cue, we stand here and tell you just how bad things are. We warn you that unless you act quickly and decisively, our homeland and others like it will disappear before the rising sea, before the end of this century.
“We in the Maldives desperately want to believe that one day our words will have an effect, and so we continue to shout them even though, deep down, we know that you are not really listening,” he said.
Mr Nasheed had again been invited to address a UN climate summit, in the approach to the Copenhagen conference this December at which world leaders hope to “seal the deal” on reducing gas emissions. His speech was sandwiched between those by the two leaders best equipped to save his island nation: President Hu of China and President Obama of the US, representing world’s No 1 and No 2 greenhouse gas emitters respectively.
But Mr Nasheed argued that developing nations must be ready to accept binding targets even if rich countries do not act. “We ask world leaders to discard those habits that have led to 20 years of complacency and broken promises on climate change, and instead seize the historic opportunity that sits at the end of the road to Copenhagen,” he said.
Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, said: “Success in Copenhagen will have positive ripple effects for global co-operation on trade, energy, security and health. Failure to reach broad agreement would be morally inexcusable, economically shortsighted and politically unwise.”
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said that without counter-measures global temperatures would rise by up to 6.4C by 2100. The dangers include the disappearance of sea ice and more frequent cyclones, heat waves and heavy rains. Water would become scarce in semi-arid areas such as the western US, the Mediterranean Basin, Southern Africa and northeastern Brazil. The Greenland ice sheet might also disappear, leading to a seven metre (23ft) rise in sea level.
“The impacts would be disproportionately severe on some of the poorest communities of the world,” Mr Pachauri said. “At least 12 countries are likely to tend towards becoming failed states and communities in other states would show potential for serious conflict due to scarcity of food, water, stress and soil degradation.”
Mr Pachauri called for steps to ensure that global emissions peaked no later than 2015.
Among the most far-reaching pledges from developed nations, Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, to reduce the emissions to a level 25 per cent below the 1990 level by 2020; the previous Japanese Government’s target was 8 per cent. That move, combined with the Chinese offer to slow its emissions, and a recent offer by India to set numerical targets for cutting its greenhouse gas emissions, added to pressure on President Obama to act. too.
Al Gore, the former Vice-President, said that he hoped that the US Senate would pass climate change legislation by December, as the House of Representatives had done, so that Mr Obama would be able to make a firm offer.
However, activists criticised Mr Obama’s speech, in which he offered little except a recognition that the US had a duty to play a leading role.
Asad Rehman, of Friends of the Earth, said: “Barack Obama’s speech was deeply disappointing — it was a huge missed opportunity which does nothing to break the logjam in international climate negotiations.”
James Cameron, of Climate Change Capital, said of the Chinese initiative: “The Chinese move will help create the world’s largest market for the technology and the knowhow needed to combat climate change, which represents great business opportunities that have a public good at their core. China is moving rapidly to create the incentives for low-carbon investments.”
Gordon Brown arrived in New York last night and was seeking support from advanced nations to back a $100 billion fund to support developing nations as they switch to green technologies. Britain is committed to a European Union target to reduce its carbon emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.
A British official described the proposal by President Hu of China as “definitely encouraging”.
“We obviously need to see numbers from China but we need to see numbers from everybody before December,” the official said.
Source: timesonline.co.uk
“Once or twice a year we are invited to attend an important climate change event such as this one — often as a keynote speaker,” Mohammed Nasheed told world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York.
“On cue, we stand here and tell you just how bad things are. We warn you that unless you act quickly and decisively, our homeland and others like it will disappear before the rising sea, before the end of this century.
“We in the Maldives desperately want to believe that one day our words will have an effect, and so we continue to shout them even though, deep down, we know that you are not really listening,” he said.
Mr Nasheed had again been invited to address a UN climate summit, in the approach to the Copenhagen conference this December at which world leaders hope to “seal the deal” on reducing gas emissions. His speech was sandwiched between those by the two leaders best equipped to save his island nation: President Hu of China and President Obama of the US, representing world’s No 1 and No 2 greenhouse gas emitters respectively.
But Mr Nasheed argued that developing nations must be ready to accept binding targets even if rich countries do not act. “We ask world leaders to discard those habits that have led to 20 years of complacency and broken promises on climate change, and instead seize the historic opportunity that sits at the end of the road to Copenhagen,” he said.
Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, said: “Success in Copenhagen will have positive ripple effects for global co-operation on trade, energy, security and health. Failure to reach broad agreement would be morally inexcusable, economically shortsighted and politically unwise.”
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said that without counter-measures global temperatures would rise by up to 6.4C by 2100. The dangers include the disappearance of sea ice and more frequent cyclones, heat waves and heavy rains. Water would become scarce in semi-arid areas such as the western US, the Mediterranean Basin, Southern Africa and northeastern Brazil. The Greenland ice sheet might also disappear, leading to a seven metre (23ft) rise in sea level.
“The impacts would be disproportionately severe on some of the poorest communities of the world,” Mr Pachauri said. “At least 12 countries are likely to tend towards becoming failed states and communities in other states would show potential for serious conflict due to scarcity of food, water, stress and soil degradation.”
Mr Pachauri called for steps to ensure that global emissions peaked no later than 2015.
Among the most far-reaching pledges from developed nations, Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, to reduce the emissions to a level 25 per cent below the 1990 level by 2020; the previous Japanese Government’s target was 8 per cent. That move, combined with the Chinese offer to slow its emissions, and a recent offer by India to set numerical targets for cutting its greenhouse gas emissions, added to pressure on President Obama to act. too.
Al Gore, the former Vice-President, said that he hoped that the US Senate would pass climate change legislation by December, as the House of Representatives had done, so that Mr Obama would be able to make a firm offer.
However, activists criticised Mr Obama’s speech, in which he offered little except a recognition that the US had a duty to play a leading role.
Asad Rehman, of Friends of the Earth, said: “Barack Obama’s speech was deeply disappointing — it was a huge missed opportunity which does nothing to break the logjam in international climate negotiations.”
James Cameron, of Climate Change Capital, said of the Chinese initiative: “The Chinese move will help create the world’s largest market for the technology and the knowhow needed to combat climate change, which represents great business opportunities that have a public good at their core. China is moving rapidly to create the incentives for low-carbon investments.”
Gordon Brown arrived in New York last night and was seeking support from advanced nations to back a $100 billion fund to support developing nations as they switch to green technologies. Britain is committed to a European Union target to reduce its carbon emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.
A British official described the proposal by President Hu of China as “definitely encouraging”.
“We obviously need to see numbers from China but we need to see numbers from everybody before December,” the official said.
Source: timesonline.co.uk
Time grows short for climate deal
The man from the middle of the Indian Ocean, from one of the tiniest of nations, told his fellow presidents he knew "you are not really listening."
But a desperate Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives, a scattering of islands amid the rising seas of global warming, took to the podium nonetheless at Tuesday's U.N. climate summit to urge his global neighbors, after "20 years of complacency," to "seize the historic opportunity that sits at the end of the road to Copenhagen."
That opportunity in Copenhagen, at a pivotal negotiating conference this December, is a chance to forge a comprehensive new accord to combat climate change. But increasingly Nasheed's road seems likely to stretch beyond the Danish capital, and beyond 2009, as world governments grapple with this immensely complex and volatile issue.
Some 100 heads of state and government took part in the one-day summit, the largest ever to deal with global warming.
They heard from Nasheed and leaders of other states threatened with flooding, drought and other expected impacts of a warming world. "If things go as usual, we will not live. We will die," the Maldivian said of his low-lying islands, a nation of 300,000 people.
Summit participants heard, too, from U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders of other industrialized nations, who spoke of their determination to take new steps to halt climate change.
But with a mere 76 days to go before the Copenhagen meeting, it appeared an interim agreement might be the most that can be expected this December, leaving difficult details for later talks.
Tuesday's gathering was the latest effort in a long, cumbersome process dating back to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, when national leaders signed on to something unprecedented, a treaty committing them to work "to protect the climate system for present and future generations."
Scientists had produced persuasive evidence that the carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that industry, transport and farming were pouring into the atmosphere were trapping heat and raising global temperatures, with potentially damaging effects from a changing climate.
Five years after Rio, negotiators added the Kyoto Protocol to the treaty, with its first, modest reductions in emissions by industrialized countries. The U.S. Senate repudiated the pact, however, and the process entered an eight-year slowdown as the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush resisted global pressure for deeper concerted action.
The U.S. opponents complained emissions reductions would crimp the American economy, and objected to Kyoto's excusing of China, India and other poorer countries from having to reduce their energy use.
As the diplomacy decelerated, climate change accelerated.
Average global temperatures had risen 0.74 degrees C (1 degree F) over the past century. The pace of sea-level rise, from heat expansion and melting land ice, increased in the late 20th century. And just last week, scientists reported that one of recorded history's greatest losses of Arctic sea ice to summer melt occurred this year. Scientific forecasts are growing ever more bleak.
While waiting for change in Washington, diplomats in 2007 set a two-year timetable for replacing the Kyoto pact, which expires in 2012, aiming at a new overall deal at the annual U.N. climate conference this December. The election of Obama, who pledged U.S. action, put new life in the process. But time was working against that timetable.
The House of Representatives in June did pass the first U.S. legislation to cap carbon emissions. The Senate, however, embroiled in the U.S. health care debate, delayed addressing the issue. Without U.S. domestic action, the rest of the world isn't likely to commit to an overall, detailed post-Kyoto accord.
Instead, it appeared increasingly that Copenhagen, at best, may produce a framework for further talks, while pieces fall into place in Washington and elsewhere, and Kyoto's formulas are perhaps extended.
Such a Copenhagen plan might set an aggregate goal for emissions reductions by richer countries, with 2020 and 2050 targets, and envision "policy-based" commitments by China and other developing countries — for example, not reducing emissions directly, but reducing "carbon intensity," or fossil-fuel use per unit of economic growth.
Depending on how well the world is rebounding from the current economic slump, richer nations might also declare their readiness to boost financial support for developing countries to switch to clean energy technologies, and to adapt to climate change's impact on their crops, their shorelines and their economic lives.
At Tuesday's summit and earlier, China, India, Brazil and other developing nations indicated they're prepared to take such steps. The Europeans and Japan's new government, meanwhile, say they'll deepen their emissions cuts. And the Americans, 17 years after Rio, may be prepared to adopt their own reductions.
But December looks too close, and the issues look too complex, for it all to mesh into a single sweeping deal in Copenhagen.
Tuesday's summit was a "step in the right direction," said Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who will host the world in December. "And yet we are still far from a solution."
Source: CHARLES J. HANLEY (AP)
But a desperate Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives, a scattering of islands amid the rising seas of global warming, took to the podium nonetheless at Tuesday's U.N. climate summit to urge his global neighbors, after "20 years of complacency," to "seize the historic opportunity that sits at the end of the road to Copenhagen."
That opportunity in Copenhagen, at a pivotal negotiating conference this December, is a chance to forge a comprehensive new accord to combat climate change. But increasingly Nasheed's road seems likely to stretch beyond the Danish capital, and beyond 2009, as world governments grapple with this immensely complex and volatile issue.
Some 100 heads of state and government took part in the one-day summit, the largest ever to deal with global warming.
They heard from Nasheed and leaders of other states threatened with flooding, drought and other expected impacts of a warming world. "If things go as usual, we will not live. We will die," the Maldivian said of his low-lying islands, a nation of 300,000 people.
Summit participants heard, too, from U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders of other industrialized nations, who spoke of their determination to take new steps to halt climate change.
But with a mere 76 days to go before the Copenhagen meeting, it appeared an interim agreement might be the most that can be expected this December, leaving difficult details for later talks.
Tuesday's gathering was the latest effort in a long, cumbersome process dating back to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, when national leaders signed on to something unprecedented, a treaty committing them to work "to protect the climate system for present and future generations."
Scientists had produced persuasive evidence that the carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that industry, transport and farming were pouring into the atmosphere were trapping heat and raising global temperatures, with potentially damaging effects from a changing climate.
Five years after Rio, negotiators added the Kyoto Protocol to the treaty, with its first, modest reductions in emissions by industrialized countries. The U.S. Senate repudiated the pact, however, and the process entered an eight-year slowdown as the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush resisted global pressure for deeper concerted action.
The U.S. opponents complained emissions reductions would crimp the American economy, and objected to Kyoto's excusing of China, India and other poorer countries from having to reduce their energy use.
As the diplomacy decelerated, climate change accelerated.
Average global temperatures had risen 0.74 degrees C (1 degree F) over the past century. The pace of sea-level rise, from heat expansion and melting land ice, increased in the late 20th century. And just last week, scientists reported that one of recorded history's greatest losses of Arctic sea ice to summer melt occurred this year. Scientific forecasts are growing ever more bleak.
While waiting for change in Washington, diplomats in 2007 set a two-year timetable for replacing the Kyoto pact, which expires in 2012, aiming at a new overall deal at the annual U.N. climate conference this December. The election of Obama, who pledged U.S. action, put new life in the process. But time was working against that timetable.
The House of Representatives in June did pass the first U.S. legislation to cap carbon emissions. The Senate, however, embroiled in the U.S. health care debate, delayed addressing the issue. Without U.S. domestic action, the rest of the world isn't likely to commit to an overall, detailed post-Kyoto accord.
Instead, it appeared increasingly that Copenhagen, at best, may produce a framework for further talks, while pieces fall into place in Washington and elsewhere, and Kyoto's formulas are perhaps extended.
Such a Copenhagen plan might set an aggregate goal for emissions reductions by richer countries, with 2020 and 2050 targets, and envision "policy-based" commitments by China and other developing countries — for example, not reducing emissions directly, but reducing "carbon intensity," or fossil-fuel use per unit of economic growth.
Depending on how well the world is rebounding from the current economic slump, richer nations might also declare their readiness to boost financial support for developing countries to switch to clean energy technologies, and to adapt to climate change's impact on their crops, their shorelines and their economic lives.
At Tuesday's summit and earlier, China, India, Brazil and other developing nations indicated they're prepared to take such steps. The Europeans and Japan's new government, meanwhile, say they'll deepen their emissions cuts. And the Americans, 17 years after Rio, may be prepared to adopt their own reductions.
But December looks too close, and the issues look too complex, for it all to mesh into a single sweeping deal in Copenhagen.
Tuesday's summit was a "step in the right direction," said Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who will host the world in December. "And yet we are still far from a solution."
Source: CHARLES J. HANLEY (AP)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Climate Change Requires a Real Movement
Here in the Maldives, it's easy to see why the math of the current climate change debate just doesn't add up -- and why negotiators are going to have to work a lot harder before the Copenhagen climate conference if they're interested in the survival of much of the planet.
The Maldives stretches 800 kilometers across the Indian Ocean, an archipelago of 1,200 tropical islands just a few meters above sea level. It is incomparably beautiful but also highly vulnerable. Sea level rise of even half a meter would make much of it uninhabitable; meanwhile, ocean temperature spikes could destroy the coral reefs that protect these islands from the waves.
This is why no one in the Maldives is applauding the recent pledge of the G-8 nations to try and hold temperature increases to 2 degrees and the atmospheric concentration of CO2 to 450 parts per million. A few years ago, those might have been laudable goals, but new science makes clear they're out of date.
After the rapid Arctic sea ice melt in the summer of 2007, scientists realized that global warming was happening more quickly and on a larger scale than they had anticipated. Wherever they looked -- high-altitude glaciers, hydrological cycles, the spread of mosquitoes -- they found change happening decades ahead of schedule. In January 2008, James Hansen, one of the world's leading climatologists, published a series of papers showing that the actual safe limit for carbon in the atmosphere was at most 350 parts per million. Anything higher than that limit, warns Hansen, could seed "irreversible, catastrophic effects" on a global scale.
We're already above that figure -- the current concentration is 390 ppm and rising. For the Maldives, climate change is no vague or distant irritation but a clear and present danger to our survival. But the Maldives is no special case; simply the canary in the world's coal mine. Neighboring Asian countries like Bangladesh are already suffering from saltwater intrusion as seas rise; Australia and the American southwest are enduring epic drought; forests across western North America are succumbing to pests multiplying in the growing heat. And all of this is with temperature increases of nearly 1 degree -- why on earth would we be aiming for 2 degrees?
Instead we need emergency action all around the world to curb emissions. It won't be easy -- to get back to 350 the world needs to wean itself off coal before 2030, and immediately end the deforestation pouring carbon in the atmosphere. Few politicians really want to tackle something that hard, but it's not impossible. The Maldives has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2020, using the wind and sun to power the entire nation. If that can happen in a relatively poor, developing country, it can happen anywhere. What we lack is not technology, but political will.
Next week, over one hundred Heads of State will converge on New York for the United Nations' Climate Change Summit. Many world leaders, however, are loath to make more than token emissions reductions. They often cite the apparent unpopularity of carbon cuts back home; as the old adage goes, 'all politics is local.' Mobilizing public opinion is therefore central to finding a climate solution. Only when prevaricating over climate change hurts politicians at the polling booth will they act with the decisiveness necessary to avert catastrophe.
From the Quit India campaign to the civil rights era, history shows us that for radical change we need a real movement. Many of the initiatives in New York next week aim to build such a movement. The United Nations will launch a global advertising campaign calling on nations to seal the climate deal at Copenhagen. The climate change blockbuster, The Age of Stupid, will premiere in Manhattan, with a live feed to hundreds of cinemas across the world. And the science-based 350.org campaign will gear up for its global day of action on October 24th.
On October 24th, the Maldives will hold the largest underwater political demonstration in history -- divers and snorkelers down on the reef with banners and signs, reminding people what's at stake.
The climate is near a tipping point -- when the Arctic suddenly melts and the glaciers disappear, that's a very bad sign. We need our political system to cross a tipping point, too, to move from feel-good statements to actual solutions, cutting emissions quickly enough to meet the demands of science. But politicians are reluctant to act unless the people act first. The events in New York and on October 24th provide ordinary people with the opportunity to make their voices heard and, in doing so, remind politicians who is ultimately in charge.
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Climate Week In New York–U.S. Must Catch Up To The International Community
New York City gears up for a busy week on climate, poverty, health pandemics, nuclear disarmament and conflict and peace negotiations. Over 100 world leaders from Russia, China, India, Iran and other developed and developing nations will gather at the UN’s Climate Summit and General Assembly, the Clinton Global Initiative and other smaller forums organized throughout the city. The climate debate is at the top of the agenda and industrialized leaders will travel to Pittsburgh at the end of the week where the G-20 will gather to discuss a plan to combat global warming ahead of a major international climate conference in Copenhagen in December.
Making your way through town, one can feel a buzz in the air–anti-Ahmadinejad and Qaddafi protests are rampant, as are tabloid papers masking themselves as the New York Post with headlines “We’re Screwed. What you’re not being told: Official City report predicts massive climate catastrophes, public health disasters.”
To add to the inflamed excitement, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a lead organizer of Climate Week NY failed to show up at his city’s climate opening ceremony. But other notables took the reign including former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair who’s climate group launched a report today entitled”Breaking the Climate Deadlock: Cutting the Cost.”
The report outlines the economic benefits for countries that go green and reduce carbon emissions. The findings indicate that if a deal is reached at the global Copenhagen climate conference in December, cutting emissions could potentially create as many as 10 million new jobs in 2020 and thus generate additional economic growth via the adoption of low carbon technologies that accelerate sustainable development in developing countries.
“This is more difficult that all the negotiations where I have been involved including the Middle East peace process and NATO,” Blair added. “However, there is a way — we must distinguish short term and long term targets. 2020 is a long way ahead. The enormous cost savings that can be achieved if countries act together are striking.”
CEO of the Climate Group, Steve Howard, summarized: “Climate Week is a partnership to see how we can come up with a successful deal in Copenhagen–but there is a lot of lifting to be done.”
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, said he wanted to ask Mayor Bloomberg to begin calling New York the “Big Green Apple.”
Celebrity actor Hugh Jackman also joined the opening ceremony and shared his “going green” experiences based on a recent trip to Ethiopia. Todd Stern, United States Special Envoy for Climate Change and the Administrator’s chief negotiator said he was hopeful Obama would go to Copenhagen with or without a Senate approved climate bill.
Representatives from China and India also commemorated the day–both recently lauded for implementing effective national plans to boost green energy. The word is also out that China plans to unveil an ambitious energy conservation plan tomorrow at the UN Climate Summit. According to Yves de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), who met with reporters earlier this morning, “Everyone knows about the one or two power plants China opens up every week, but nobody knows that China is also closing one or two power plants every week as well.” De Boer added “China doesn’t need anybody’s money, but they want to cooperate on clean technology.”
Nevertheless, de Boer believes “Obama is doing his darndest. But the international community is saying, what is the United States doing in all of this? Why has the protocol son not joined the international community?”
Many international skeptics have criticized the United States for being the world’s biggest polluter per capita, and at the same time, being slow to approve the Markey-Waxman bill and other climate change initiatives –when other countries have sped far ahead on this agenda.
Across town, at the Natural History Museum in New York’s Upper West Side, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) including Cape Verde, Grenada, Nauru, Maldives and Trinidad, got together to talk about the “murder” being committed by industrialized nations on small islands. Lead organizer, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives said “Climate Change is already delivering damage not of our making. Should we, leaders of the most vulnerable and exposed countries, be asking our people to sign onto significantly greater degrees of misery and livelihood insecurity, essentially becoming climate change guinea pigs?”
AOSIS is calling on industrialized nations to demand a global warming limit in Copenhagen and to cut emissions by 45% by 2020. The Alliance group is also asking for global temperature increases to be well below 1.5 degrees C in order to ensure the survival of small and low lying islands and their inhabitants. Many smaller islands are disappearing leaving residents homeless due to rising water levels caused by melting polar ice caps and global warming.
Source: talkradionews.com
Making your way through town, one can feel a buzz in the air–anti-Ahmadinejad and Qaddafi protests are rampant, as are tabloid papers masking themselves as the New York Post with headlines “We’re Screwed. What you’re not being told: Official City report predicts massive climate catastrophes, public health disasters.”
To add to the inflamed excitement, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a lead organizer of Climate Week NY failed to show up at his city’s climate opening ceremony. But other notables took the reign including former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair who’s climate group launched a report today entitled”Breaking the Climate Deadlock: Cutting the Cost.”
The report outlines the economic benefits for countries that go green and reduce carbon emissions. The findings indicate that if a deal is reached at the global Copenhagen climate conference in December, cutting emissions could potentially create as many as 10 million new jobs in 2020 and thus generate additional economic growth via the adoption of low carbon technologies that accelerate sustainable development in developing countries.
“This is more difficult that all the negotiations where I have been involved including the Middle East peace process and NATO,” Blair added. “However, there is a way — we must distinguish short term and long term targets. 2020 is a long way ahead. The enormous cost savings that can be achieved if countries act together are striking.”
CEO of the Climate Group, Steve Howard, summarized: “Climate Week is a partnership to see how we can come up with a successful deal in Copenhagen–but there is a lot of lifting to be done.”
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, said he wanted to ask Mayor Bloomberg to begin calling New York the “Big Green Apple.”
Celebrity actor Hugh Jackman also joined the opening ceremony and shared his “going green” experiences based on a recent trip to Ethiopia. Todd Stern, United States Special Envoy for Climate Change and the Administrator’s chief negotiator said he was hopeful Obama would go to Copenhagen with or without a Senate approved climate bill.
Representatives from China and India also commemorated the day–both recently lauded for implementing effective national plans to boost green energy. The word is also out that China plans to unveil an ambitious energy conservation plan tomorrow at the UN Climate Summit. According to Yves de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), who met with reporters earlier this morning, “Everyone knows about the one or two power plants China opens up every week, but nobody knows that China is also closing one or two power plants every week as well.” De Boer added “China doesn’t need anybody’s money, but they want to cooperate on clean technology.”
Nevertheless, de Boer believes “Obama is doing his darndest. But the international community is saying, what is the United States doing in all of this? Why has the protocol son not joined the international community?”
Many international skeptics have criticized the United States for being the world’s biggest polluter per capita, and at the same time, being slow to approve the Markey-Waxman bill and other climate change initiatives –when other countries have sped far ahead on this agenda.
Across town, at the Natural History Museum in New York’s Upper West Side, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) including Cape Verde, Grenada, Nauru, Maldives and Trinidad, got together to talk about the “murder” being committed by industrialized nations on small islands. Lead organizer, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives said “Climate Change is already delivering damage not of our making. Should we, leaders of the most vulnerable and exposed countries, be asking our people to sign onto significantly greater degrees of misery and livelihood insecurity, essentially becoming climate change guinea pigs?”
AOSIS is calling on industrialized nations to demand a global warming limit in Copenhagen and to cut emissions by 45% by 2020. The Alliance group is also asking for global temperature increases to be well below 1.5 degrees C in order to ensure the survival of small and low lying islands and their inhabitants. Many smaller islands are disappearing leaving residents homeless due to rising water levels caused by melting polar ice caps and global warming.
Source: talkradionews.com
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Maldives President proposes green tax for tourists
The Maldives, an archipelago of over 1000 islands in the Indian Ocean known for their stunning beauty and expensive, luxurious resorts, aren't exactly cheap to visit. And they aren't about to get any cheaper. The President of the Maldives has proposed a $3 per day "green tax" on tourists.
The tax would help fund the President's plans for fighting climate change and for making the Maldives a carbon-neutral country within the next decade. He has a vested interest in stopping global warming - the Maldives are the lowest-lying islands on the planet, with an average elevation of only 7 feet above sea level, and it is estimated that they could be completely submerged by rising sea levels within the next ten years.
With an average of 700,000 visitors, who each stay around three days, visiting the Maldives annually, the tax could provide the country with over $6 million per year for environmental initiatives. With most resorts in the Maldives costing $500 (or much more) per night, $3 per person, per day is a small price to pay to help protect this vulnerable country from the dangers of climate change.
Source: gadling.com
Friday, September 4, 2009
Can charred coconut keep Maldives from submerging?
The Republic of Maldives has signed a partnership with a tech company to develop biochar for its soils, both parties announced this week.
Biochar, a method of carbon capture and storage, is typically produced by heating biomass in a kiln until it turns into a manmade charcoal. That biochar can then be buried to enrich soil for agriculture. In some cases, biochar can be used as fuel.
The deal with U.K.-based Carbon Gold is part of the Maldives' plans to be carbon-neutral by 2020.
With the help of Carbon Gold, the Maldives will manufacture biochar from woody biomass, including coconut shells, for use in its own soil. As part of the deal, Carbon Gold will also launch an informational campaign directed at Maldivians on the benefits of using biochar rather than imported fertilizers to enhance soil quality for agriculture.
"The Maldives is already adversely affected by climate change so I warmly welcome this relationship with Carbon Gold. Biochar has a crucial role in helping us achieve carbon neutral status as well as providing an economic and environmental boost to our people," Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed said in a statement.
Though not a very powerful player on the global carbon stage, the Republic of Maldives is significant for being at the front line of climate change. If the Earth warms and seas rise as predicted, scientists believe the Indian Ocean archipelago country will be the first to go under water.
Source: news.cnet.com
Biochar, a method of carbon capture and storage, is typically produced by heating biomass in a kiln until it turns into a manmade charcoal. That biochar can then be buried to enrich soil for agriculture. In some cases, biochar can be used as fuel.
The deal with U.K.-based Carbon Gold is part of the Maldives' plans to be carbon-neutral by 2020.
With the help of Carbon Gold, the Maldives will manufacture biochar from woody biomass, including coconut shells, for use in its own soil. As part of the deal, Carbon Gold will also launch an informational campaign directed at Maldivians on the benefits of using biochar rather than imported fertilizers to enhance soil quality for agriculture.
"The Maldives is already adversely affected by climate change so I warmly welcome this relationship with Carbon Gold. Biochar has a crucial role in helping us achieve carbon neutral status as well as providing an economic and environmental boost to our people," Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed said in a statement.
Though not a very powerful player on the global carbon stage, the Republic of Maldives is significant for being at the front line of climate change. If the Earth warms and seas rise as predicted, scientists believe the Indian Ocean archipelago country will be the first to go under water.
Source: news.cnet.com
Can charred coconut keep Maldives from submerging?
The Republic of Maldives has signed a partnership with a tech company to develop biochar for its soils, both parties announced this week.
Biochar, a method of carbon capture and storage, is typically produced by heating biomass in a kiln until it turns into a manmade charcoal. That biochar can then be buried to enrich soil for agriculture. In some cases, biochar can be used as fuel.
The deal with U.K.-based Carbon Gold is part of the Maldives' plans to be carbon-neutral by 2020.
With the help of Carbon Gold, the Maldives will manufacture biochar from woody biomass, including coconut shells, for use in its own soil. As part of the deal, Carbon Gold will also launch an informational campaign directed at Maldivians on the benefits of using biochar rather than imported fertilizers to enhance soil quality for agriculture.
"The Maldives is already adversely affected by climate change so I warmly welcome this relationship with Carbon Gold. Biochar has a crucial role in helping us achieve carbon neutral status as well as providing an economic and environmental boost to our people," Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed said in a statement.
Though not a very powerful player on the global carbon stage, the Republic of Maldives is significant for being at the front line of climate change. If the Earth warms and seas rise as predicted, scientists believe the Indian Ocean archipelago country will be the first to go under water.
Source: news.cnet.com
Biochar, a method of carbon capture and storage, is typically produced by heating biomass in a kiln until it turns into a manmade charcoal. That biochar can then be buried to enrich soil for agriculture. In some cases, biochar can be used as fuel.
The deal with U.K.-based Carbon Gold is part of the Maldives' plans to be carbon-neutral by 2020.
With the help of Carbon Gold, the Maldives will manufacture biochar from woody biomass, including coconut shells, for use in its own soil. As part of the deal, Carbon Gold will also launch an informational campaign directed at Maldivians on the benefits of using biochar rather than imported fertilizers to enhance soil quality for agriculture.
"The Maldives is already adversely affected by climate change so I warmly welcome this relationship with Carbon Gold. Biochar has a crucial role in helping us achieve carbon neutral status as well as providing an economic and environmental boost to our people," Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed said in a statement.
Though not a very powerful player on the global carbon stage, the Republic of Maldives is significant for being at the front line of climate change. If the Earth warms and seas rise as predicted, scientists believe the Indian Ocean archipelago country will be the first to go under water.
Source: news.cnet.com
The Maldives road show 2009 goes to Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen
This is the first time the Maldives Tourism Board would like to invite tour operators, travel agents, airlines and members of the media from Scandinavia to join the Road show for a travel trade, presentation and seminar.
Welcome light snacks and drinks will be available and fabulous prize give-a ways for free holidays in Maldives. There will be a five star line up of Co- participants for example Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Angsana Hotels & Resorts and Island Pearl Hotels.
The Seminar offers you an opportunity to discover the possibilities of Maldives and get first hand information about this true paradise. At the same time you have an opportunity to meet hoteliers and tour operators from the Maldives who will present the attractions of this luxury destination as well as their products and services.
Indivo Global Consultancy - a leading Scandinavian marketing company who have been representing destinations and resorts through out the world, will be organizing this world class event. Indivo Global Consultancy have specialised in promoting and positioning foreign resorts into Scandinavia since 1997.
The Maldives road show takes off in Stockholm Sunday the 20th of September 2009 in Quality hotel Globen and on Tuesday 22th September 2009 in Oslo, Radisson SAS BLU Hotel. Last show will be held in Copenhagen on Thursday 24th September 2009 in Radisson SAS Scandinavia.
Source: www.24-7pressrelease.com
Welcome light snacks and drinks will be available and fabulous prize give-a ways for free holidays in Maldives. There will be a five star line up of Co- participants for example Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Angsana Hotels & Resorts and Island Pearl Hotels.
The Seminar offers you an opportunity to discover the possibilities of Maldives and get first hand information about this true paradise. At the same time you have an opportunity to meet hoteliers and tour operators from the Maldives who will present the attractions of this luxury destination as well as their products and services.
Indivo Global Consultancy - a leading Scandinavian marketing company who have been representing destinations and resorts through out the world, will be organizing this world class event. Indivo Global Consultancy have specialised in promoting and positioning foreign resorts into Scandinavia since 1997.
The Maldives road show takes off in Stockholm Sunday the 20th of September 2009 in Quality hotel Globen and on Tuesday 22th September 2009 in Oslo, Radisson SAS BLU Hotel. Last show will be held in Copenhagen on Thursday 24th September 2009 in Radisson SAS Scandinavia.
Source: www.24-7pressrelease.com
The Maldives road show 2009 goes to Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen
This is the first time the Maldives Tourism Board would like to invite tour operators, travel agents, airlines and members of the media from Scandinavia to join the Road show for a travel trade, presentation and seminar.
Welcome light snacks and drinks will be available and fabulous prize give-a ways for free holidays in Maldives. There will be a five star line up of Co- participants for example Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Angsana Hotels & Resorts and Island Pearl Hotels.
The Seminar offers you an opportunity to discover the possibilities of Maldives and get first hand information about this true paradise. At the same time you have an opportunity to meet hoteliers and tour operators from the Maldives who will present the attractions of this luxury destination as well as their products and services.
Indivo Global Consultancy - a leading Scandinavian marketing company who have been representing destinations and resorts through out the world, will be organizing this world class event. Indivo Global Consultancy have specialised in promoting and positioning foreign resorts into Scandinavia since 1997.
The Maldives road show takes off in Stockholm Sunday the 20th of September 2009 in Quality hotel Globen and on Tuesday 22th September 2009 in Oslo, Radisson SAS BLU Hotel. Last show will be held in Copenhagen on Thursday 24th September 2009 in Radisson SAS Scandinavia.
Source: www.24-7pressrelease.com
Welcome light snacks and drinks will be available and fabulous prize give-a ways for free holidays in Maldives. There will be a five star line up of Co- participants for example Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Angsana Hotels & Resorts and Island Pearl Hotels.
The Seminar offers you an opportunity to discover the possibilities of Maldives and get first hand information about this true paradise. At the same time you have an opportunity to meet hoteliers and tour operators from the Maldives who will present the attractions of this luxury destination as well as their products and services.
Indivo Global Consultancy - a leading Scandinavian marketing company who have been representing destinations and resorts through out the world, will be organizing this world class event. Indivo Global Consultancy have specialised in promoting and positioning foreign resorts into Scandinavia since 1997.
The Maldives road show takes off in Stockholm Sunday the 20th of September 2009 in Quality hotel Globen and on Tuesday 22th September 2009 in Oslo, Radisson SAS BLU Hotel. Last show will be held in Copenhagen on Thursday 24th September 2009 in Radisson SAS Scandinavia.
Source: www.24-7pressrelease.com
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