Vice President His Excellency Uz Hussain Mohamed Latheef emphasised the urgent need for a unified response of the Commonwealth to the escalating climate crisis. Delivering his statement at the CHOGM Climate Breakfast: Building Consensus for Climate Finance Targets in the Commonwealth, the Vice President highlighted the severe impacts of global warming, which are disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations, especially those of the Commonwealth.
The Vice President stressed the importance of mobilising predictable, adequate, and sustainable climate finance to support ambitious climate action. He called for a new collective quantified goal on climate finance that exceeds the previously agreed USD100 billion per year, incorporating essential sub-goals for loss and damage response, mitigation, and adaptation. He also highlighted the need for changes in the international financial architecture to better cater to the development needs of vulnerable nations, including Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
The Vice President stressed on the need for a new collective quantified goal on climate finance that needs to be agreed and concluded at COP29. Acknowledging the significant barriers many Commonwealth nations, like the Maldives, face in accessing necessary funds, Vice President Latheef praised the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub for its support to the Maldives.
Before concluding, the Vice President called for ambitious submissions of new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), guided by the global stocktake, and urged Commonwealth members to steer back towards a 1.5-degree pathway, and to act decisively for future generations, for people and the planet.
The Climate Breakfast was organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat, as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) being held at Apia, Samoa. Vice President Latheef is leading the Maldives delegation to CHOGM.