Climate change desperation and the Maldivian hypocrisy

The climate change battle has been fought for over 30 years, when adverse effects of the changing weather began to ravage the shores of Small Island Developing States such as the Maldives, and crop production in larger ones. However, a critical point has been reached and surpassed, and scientists now wonder if salvation is realistic. 

In 2009, during the Conference of Parties 15 (COP15) held in Denmark, a movement called 350.org joined the ranks of multiple other organisations calling for climate action, and a binding treaty. The value ‘350’ represented the ‘parts per million’ count of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere, and that was the maximum increment that the activists believed should be allowed. Carbon count in the atmosphere directly correlates with global temperatures, as this was the most common greenhouse gas. Substances defined as greenhouse gases trapped the sun’s heat within the atmosphere, raising global temperatures, and then changing the climate, all in one fell swoop.

However today, the carbon density has easily surpassed 350 ppm, and rises slowly beyond 416 ppm. It is a curious fact, as the nations that vehemently refused 350 as a limit claimed 400 should instead be the allowed limit. This was only, and solely, due to industrial pollution that some of the more powerful, economically dominant nations wanted to be allowed to continue. They claimed that changing from fossil fuels to renewable resources (and reducing carbon output in the form of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and the like) was too much to ask for. They claimed that the potential profit from their factories outweighed the pleas of climate victims.

Maldives did try to argue against this. Multiple representatives, from former President Mohamed Nasheed (lovingly known as the Island President back then), numerous environment and climate activists, as well as children, played their part at forums, panel discussions, and even protests. The world was on the cusp of a fair, binding treaty until nations such as the US vetoed against these controls. At the end of the day, the economy of the near future took precedence over future sustainability. 

‘Carbon footprint’ and ‘carbon credit’ was established as a way to monitor output of pollutants into the air by using green methods to reduce or annihilate existing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, which worked like a financial vice on big industry. Nations drew and renegotiated deals and quotas, made pledges to move to greener industry, and vowed to do better.

Yet, this year being one of the hottest 19 years ever on record, the results are less than optimal. 

As for accomplishing pledges, how the Maldivian administration has been doing in the last decade is almost laughable. Distressing, even.

In 2009, Former President Nasheed announced the country was going to go carbon-neutral - a hot, trendy goal at the time. The objective was for the total output of carbon in the Maldives to be equal to or less than the amount of carbon the Maldives helped remove from the atmosphere. Planting trees, cultivating coral reefs, and phasing out fossil fuels as much as possible were all viable steps that could be taken. 

For a country with such a small population and congested living spaces in the capital with an existing electricity infrastructure, all it would have taken was getting the fossil fueled power plants off the grid and replacing it with sustainable, efficient renewable resources. Of course, there would be a lot more technicalities, but the possibility has been proven by nations such as Brunei. Carbon neutrality in the Maldives may not have budged the numbers on the global tables, but the method, the determination, and the achievement alone would have carried weight in further protests and negotiations for climate action. 

Twelve years and two changes in administrations later, the country is still partaking in actions they had so vehemently condemned before. Proper policy evolution to switch to renewable resources is non-existent. Revamping the transport sector to use clean energy, establish actual working public transport systems within city centres, investing in changing public lifestyles, and also assisting and promoting individuals to switch over to clean energy are dreams that were once bright and hopeful, but murky today. 

With next to no cap on motor vehicle imports, and curiously constrictive policies on building self-sustaining power systems for homes seems to show that the administrations are dispassionate about such a crucial, life-threatening issue.

All around the world, the sea level is rising at 3 mm per year. This might seem like a small amount on paper, but when this increase brings about violent changes to ocean currents and weather systems, the low-lying islands would see entire coral reefs die out within weeks of a freak change in temperatures. Another news that is almost two years old is how the Great Barrier Reef of Australia has been pronounced effectively dead and beyond salvation due to coral bleaching. 

With island dredging projects, building not one but three more bridges across the ocean floor, deforestation to build airports, the Maldivian leadership is turning a blind eye to the promises made years before. The lack of green initiatives, the lack of policy changes to fuel consumption and pollution control, and the lack of dialogue for climate action, speaks volumes.

Where once the Maldives could have led the charge for climate action not only with words but thorugh results, the nation has little to nothing to show for its cause. True, changing overnight is not an option, but steering in the right, cleaner, direction would have set the precedent for other nations around the world. 

Climate change has been seen as a hoax by those who are the least affected by it, or the most ignorant to facts and science. Climate action needs to be a constant talking point not just at the United Nations General Assembly and other press releases, but in every undertaking by the government. Climate change mitigation is a responsibility owed not to the land that is home, but to the children who are going to inherit the world this generation will leave behind.

Speeches, statements, and ambassadorships are well and good, but the people of the Maldives need to be reunited in a cause that, if utterly failed at this rate, would rob their grandchildren of the life they deserve in this archipelago. Climate action needs to take place right now, even if it is already too late.