Parliament passes resolution to declare climate emergency in Maldives

The Parliament, on Wednesday, passed a resolution to declare a climate emergency in Maldives.

The resolution, presented by Hoarafushi MP Ahmed Saleem, is designed to draw global attention on the need to mitigate climate change before the world runs out of time.

The Environment and Climate Change Committee made several changes to the resolution during its review, one of which had been to declare the effects of climate change being felt in Maldives as emergencies. The change was made following widespread concern regarding severe erosion being felt in a number of islands, which has been attributed to both climate change and the blockade of sand formation and movement due to harbor and other infrastructure projects.

The amended resolution was passed with the unanimous consensus of 68 parliamentarians on Wednesday afternoon.

It recommends several measures to mitigate climate change, one of which is for Maldives to partner with other global organizations to advocate for a cease in investments and subsidies by countries on fossil fuel production, and diversion of the money towards production of renewable energy.

Additional recommendations:

• Maldives must advocate for a reduction in carbon emissions in the global platform.
• Maldives must advocate for a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2030 and net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.
• Maldives must advocate to compile and execute policies, in line with the UN framework, for economic sanctions against countries which continue to emit high quantities of carbon in violation of the spirit of the Paris Agreement.

The Parliament’s resolution is designed to push the President and the Maldivian government execute its recommendations.

Hundreds of local governments and 25 individual countries have declared climate emergencies so far, the first of which had been declared in 2016.