There is no excuse for burning coal anymore: Nasheed
46 countries have announced plan to become carbon neutral
Nasheed (c) at the Kigali Global Dialogue
Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed has said there is no excuse for burning coal for enrichment and that the world needs to rapidly de-carbonize the global economy starting with electricity production.
The former President said this in his speech on climate change at the Kigali Global Dialogue on Wednesday.
Speaking at the forum, Nasheed said that, 10 years ago, as president of the Maldives, he was ridiculed for announced plans to make the island nation carbon neutral in 10 years.
He said that the large developing countries began changing course when the EU discussed cutting emissions 20 percent.
Highlighting India’s contribution to fighting climate change, Nasheed said that Maldives and India had been on opposing sides at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in 2009 and that Maldives was calling for rapid action against climate change to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees from pre-industrial times, which was essential for the survival of the people on low-lying countries such as Maldives and Bangladesh.
He noted that, in 2009, India and other big developing countries such as China, were blocking progress at the talks by pushing the argument that they had the right to use coal to develop just as western countries have done.
Also emphasizing the need to adapt, Nasheed said that “even if the world stops producing carbon emissions tomorrow, we would still need to adapt to climate change because there is future warming already locked into the system.”
