President Mohamed Nasheed has today warned against watered down deals to address climate change.
Speaking to the Delhi High Level Conference on Climate Change, which is jointly being organized by the United Nations and the Indian government, the President said: “On the issue of climate change, there is no room for compromise, fudged deals or half-measures.”
“The Maldives, like India, believes that such a deal must start with the international framework already in place,” added the President.
In working towards such a deal, the President reiterated that countries start with the “principle of common but differentiated responsibilities”, set out in the Kyoto Protocol.
Speaking on the G8 decision to halt temperature rises to two degrees Celsius, President Nasheed said, “with so much damage being caused by less than one degree of warming, why on earth would we aim for two degrees?”
The President however reminded developing countries’ responsibility to address their own increasing levels of carbon emissions.
He said, “[W]ith each passing day, as our emissions soar, we become more complicit in the crime.”
At the conference, which was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior figures from around the world, the President emphasised importance of investing in green technologies to cut back current levels of carbon concentration.
Concluding his speech, the President said India had the potential to achieve what he called a “green power revolution” to address the climate crisis.
