The Vice President stated that adaptation must be financed at scale, emphasising that support for SIDS must be predictable, accessible, grant-based, and concessional.
The President's Office
Emphasising that the answer to rising seas cannot be retreat but must be resilience, His Excellency Vice President Uz Hussain Mohamed Latheef delivered the Maldives Statement today at the High-Level Plenary Meeting on Addressing the Existential Threats Posed by Sea Level Rise, held at the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 81).
Recalling that the Maldives brought this crisis to the Assembly nearly four decades ago, leading to the 1989 Malé Declaration on Global Warming and Sea Level Rise, the Vice President noted that the warning has grown only more urgent. With encroaching waters threatening infrastructure, livelihoods, key economic sectors, and broader development across Small Island Developing States (SIDS), he called for decisive action across three areas.
Outlining the first priority, the Vice President stated that adaptation must be financed at scale, emphasising that support for SIDS must be predictable, accessible, grant-based, and concessional. He stressed that funds must arrive early enough to reduce risk and highlighted the need for a dedicated sea level rise observation mechanism, noting that the international community cannot address what it cannot measure.
Addressing legal protections, the Vice President emphasised that international law must provide certainty. He maintained that rising seas must not undermine lawful baselines, maritime zones, or state entitlements, asserting that statehood, sovereignty, and UN membership cannot be challenged, and that while geography may change, legal identity must not.
On development planning, the Vice President called for integrating resilience directly into core policies, from infrastructure design to economic strategies. He shared that the Maldives is already embedding these measures through its third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), calling on development partners to help scale up such investments.
Concluding his statement, the Vice President stressed that sea level rise demands sustained global attention, urging leaders to turn commitments into action that strengthens resilience and safeguards the future.
