Tiempo Climate Newswatch

	Maumoon Abdul Gayoom stresses the human aspects of climate change and describes the key components of a good post-2012 climate agreement.
The author is President of the Republic of the Maldives.

For over a decade, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has delivered definitive and unequivocal scientific proof on the many facets of global climate change. The Stern Review proved that climate change could be tackled effectively without submitting our economies to bankruptcy. The United Nations Development Programme’s most recent Human Development Report identifies the human impacts of climate change, unlike many previous studies that projected the issue as a scientific and environmental one.

Climate change has now become a daily reality in the Maldives and other small island states. With meagre financial resources and limited capacity to mitigate or adapt, climate change has become the defining issue of the 21st century. Our severe lack of adaptive capacity, including financial, technical and institutional resources, means we are ill-prepared to deal with these multiple threats. All the while, the impending long-term effects of sea-level rise are drawing ever closer.

The impacts of climate change will be felt sooner, rather than later, in every nation, every community and every neighbourhood. But, of course, the Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States would be faced with a much greater challenge than the rest of the world.

We believe that climate change must be viewed not only as a danger to natural systems, but also as a direct threat to human survival and well-being. We are convinced that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiation process must not be viewed as a traditional series of governmental trade-offs, but as an urgent international effort to safeguard human lives, homes, rights and livelihoods.

The Bali Process must have a clear long-term target to stabilize the climate system and ensure that temperature rises are reined in to reasonable levels. Even a two degrees Celsius temperature increase compared to pre-industrial levels would have devastating consequences on small island states.

Adaptation must be at the heart of a post-2012 climate agreement. International activity on adaptation must include vulnerability assessments, enhanced resilience to climate impacts, building human and institutional capacity, and making public and private investments in making countries less vulnerable to climate change. The Adaptation Fund must be adequately resourced. It must also be easily accessible to the Small Island Developing States.

Negotiations within the framework of the UNFCCC towards a global and comprehensive agreement to stabilize the climate system must be completed by 2009. There can be no more delay, nor more distractions. After all, there is no more time.

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Tiempo Climate Newswatch
Updated: March 6th 2010