Maldives welcomes US return to Paris Agreement

Maldives has welcomed the United States’ return to the Paris Climate Agreement.

While US’ new president, Joe Biden previously announced the decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement, its re-entry was officially confirmed on Friday after being out of the worldwide global climate pact for 107 days.

Welcoming this, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said Maldives being a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), agrees that “doing bare minimum to address climate change isn't enough”.

He added that the Maldives is ready to with the America, “to accelerate Climate Action ahead of COP26”; The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, is the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference. It is scheduled for November.

Former President Donald Trump withdrew United States from the Paris Agreement last last year, and during an interview to RaajjeTV during his visit to the Maldives last November, Trump administration’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that withdrawing from the agreement was “absolutely” the right move for the country.

President Biden signed the executive order beginning the 30-day process for the US to reenter the Paris Agreement hours after being sworn-in on January 20, which has been described as a significant step to reverse the country’s climate policies of the last four years.

Established with the common cause to boost global response to the looming threats of climate change, especially to low-lying islands, the Paris Climate Agreement has the purpose of enhancing support to assist developing countries to combat impacts of climate change. It aims to keep a global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to encourage efforts to limit increasing temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.