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President Calls For Greenhouse Gas Cuts - But Economy First |
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| Written by Minivan News, on 24-04-2008 06:31 |
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Tuesday called for the global business community to cut greenhouse gas emissions as a matter of urgency.
Making the keynote address at the UN-backed Business for the Environment 2008 Global Summit in Singapore, he said: “We believe that the emissions reduction targets set under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change [are] not rigid enough.”
But in a subsequent interview with Reuters, the President said he could not call for a reduction in the international flights which are the fastest-growing source of such emissions, as Maldives is economically dependent on the tourism industry.
The speech – accompanied by the launch of a new anthology of the President’s speeches on the environment entitled Paradise Drowning – forms part of the government’s ongoing international campaign on climate change.
One of the world’s lowest-lying nations, Maldives has adopted climate change as a platform for engagement with the international community in recent years, but the President’s involvement with the issue goes as far back as the 1980s.
Yet he admitted: “The Maldives relies almost entirely on imported petroleum-based fuels.”
He emphasised measures taken to reduce the impact of the country’s approximately 5,000 motor vehicles, such as taxes on imports and a ban on imports of any vehicles over five years old.
But a hybrid renewable energy project for inhabited islands remains at pilot stage.
“The current mindset to target for the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentration levels in the atmosphere at 450 ppm is unacceptable to the Maldives,” Gayoom said. “The proposal to allow temperatures to rise by 2 per cent on 1990 levels...would spell disaster for us.”
But he told Reuters: “I don't think it's a viable option for us to cut down on tourism because it's the mainstay of our economy.”
“We are the victims” of increased air travel, he asserted.
Tourism, which grew by over 12 per cent in 2007, generates around 30 per cent of Maldives’ revenues, with further income from associated industries such as construction. Courtesy: Minivan News
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