Member countries of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) are climate vulnerable, but not victims, says Maldives parliament speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed.
Nasheed, CVF’s Thematic Ambassador for Ambition, made the statement during a leader’s ‘Midnight Climate Survival’ conference held virtually on Wednesday evening, on the sidelines of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Noting that recent research have shown the one percent of the world’s top income earners “have produced twice as much carbon emission as the bottom 50 percent in the past two decades,” the former president stressed that CVF member countries “have not caused the problem”.
“We in the CVF, who are mostly poor countries, have done our bit to help simply by remaining poor. But this cannot go on. But this cannot go on, Bangladesh, Kenya, all the CVF countries who are now NDCs, rightly aim to achieve middle income status quickly within the next two decades. If this development is done in a high carbon way, it is game over for climate. There will be no ice left in the Atlantic at all, in the Arctic at all, and my own country the Maldives will disappear, we have to figure out a way through this conundrum, and to that I am appealing to CVF member countries to work with me and a team of world class experts to draw up what the Bangladesh government has called Climate Prosperity Plans”Former President Mohamed Nasheed
He noted that these plans “will aim to deliver the economic growth and prosperity that the CVF countries rightfully demand, to eliminate poverty entirely and allow today's least developed countries to reach middle income status by 2035-40”.
Highlighting that CVF may be climate vulnerable, Nasheed stated that they are not victims, rather leaders, and that as its Ambition Ambassador he will “take [the] climate prosperity plans to form a nucleus of a high ambition coalition that also include the biggest and most powerful nations”.
“This is the new paradigm of climate. Instead of “I want because you want,” we have “I will because you will”. Instead of the blame game, we have the aim game. Let’s aim for high ambition, zero carbon, go back to 1.5 degrees and save the planet”Former President Mohamed Nasheed
Nasheed further stressed that they “cannot let this crucial climate deadline slip”, adding that “if we are unable to fix the climate issues that would become the biggest national security threat for our region in the next few decades to come”.
