"We are not waiting for the world to save us, we are implementing what we can to adapt to climate change"

The Maldives is not waiting for the world to save us, we are implementing what we can to adapt to climate change, says Minister of Environment Climate Change and Technology Aminath Shauna.

The Maldivian Minister of Environment made the remarks while speaking at the Sustainability Talks panel discussion of the Visit Maldives Storytellers' Conference 2023, on Tuesday.

Speaking at the panel discussion, Minister Shauna noted that the country has not received the amount of financial support needed, from the international community.

The Minister highlighted that the Maldives in the past 10 years, received only two projects from the green climate fund. She noted that one of these projects will be inaugurated after 8 years and one is yet to be implemented.

Minister Shauna went onto say that the pace of financial flow to countries like Maldives is extremely slow.

Stating that the Maldives is not waiting for the finance to flow into the country, Minister Shauna said that Maldives is already implementing what we can as a country, to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Noting that the fisheries and tourism are the two main industries of Maldivian economy, the Environment Minister stated that the country needs to manage its oceans sustainably, to sustain these two industries. She went onto say that the country is currently implementing an extremely ambitious goal to be able to protect at least 20 percent of the oceans, which will contribute to the global conservation goal of protecting 30 percent of the oceans and lands by 2030.

Furthermore, the Minister noted that the country has so far protected 13 percent of its reefs, to try and adapt to the challenges that the world is facing due to global warming and climate change.

The session also saw Minister Shauna highlighting that the losses and damages that the Maldives is facing due to climate change cannot be quantified.