Pres Muizzu: Sea level rise demands urgent and coordinated global action

Climate change and resulting sea level rise demands urgent, consistent and coordinated global action, says Maldivian President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, outlining three key actions.

President Muizzu made the appeal during his address at the High-Level Meeting on Sea Level Rise on Wednesday evening, held on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In his address, President Muizzu said that for Maldives, the world’s lowest lying country, the climate crisis poses an emergency, that is threatening their way of life, cultural identity and heritage, and increasing and intensifying adverse weather and natural disasters, affecting the wellbeing of its people, eroding development gains and putting the country’s economy at risk.

“Climate change, and resulting sea level rise, demands urgent, consistent, and coordinated global action. Actions that enhance the adaptive capacity of coastal communities and low-lying island states – that are most susceptible,” he said.

He outlined three such actions.

First, he called for an urgent increase in the provision of and access to adaptation finance.

He said that adaptation support has not caught up to the rate of climate degradation.

“We call to urgently address the imbalance between mitigation and adaptation. We urge to double adaptation financing. We ask to remove the tedious approval procedures, and conditions to access finance. And encourage financing on a needs basis,” he said.

President Muizzu said that without support towards specific adaptation needs, the targets set out in the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda cannot be achieved.

“We need political will, and a coherent approach. A necessary first step, is to incorporate the promise enshrined in the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS into the international development, and climate financing framework,” he said.

Second, he called on the global community to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund, and third, he urged the transfer of technology.

“We have the science. We have the knowledge. And we have the tools to combat climate change,” he said.

He noted that in 1987, the Maldivian capital, Male’ City was inundated with sea swells.

“We have the will to thrive. Our call to action, our fight to live on, will survive,” he said.