President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has said that Maldives “cannot and will not wait for Paris’ prescribed timelines.”
He said this at the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday, where he emphasized that the world has been struggling “to meaningfully address the climate emergency” for over 30 years.
“For thirty years, we Maldivians have been saying that this is the fight of our lifetime, because it threatens our very existence as a nation”President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
He also noted that the scientific evidence irrefutable, but that “there has been an alarming lack of global action.”
Further noting that the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was a breakthrough for what the world could collectively achieve, Solih emphasized that “so much more needs to be done” to solve the issue.
“Although this problem is not of our making, the Maldives is determined to drive the solution. We cannot and will not wait for Paris’s prescribed timelines”President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
Noting that this includes “revising and upscaling [the country’s] Nationally Determined Contributions,” the president said that Maldives will “work in concert with other island nations, including the Small Island Developing States and fellow members of the Alliance of Small Island States.”
Solih also reiterated the country’s plan, entitled climate smart resilient islands, which he revealed at the Climate Action Summit on Monday.
Noting that this plan “which seeks to utilize natural solutions, promote innovation and leverage new technologies to build resilience in our communities,” the president said that the plan also includes phasing out usage of single use plastic by the year 2023.
“This will be one of the most far-reaching and ambitious plastics phase-out plans of any nation on Earth”President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
Furthermore, President Solih noted that connection between climate change and the oceans, highlighting that when a person visits the Maldives they will “cross over miles upon miles of our territory before ever spotting land.” He added that Maldives is “a very large ocean state” with 99 of the country comprising of the ocean.
“You can’t protect the oceans without solving climate change and you can’t solve climate change without protecting the oceans. For us this is personal!”President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
