Vice President attends the final round of climate negotiations before Copenhagen

Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed is currently in Barcelona, Spain attending the final round of negotiations before the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen this year.

During his stay in Barcelona, the Vice President participated in the informal round of the Greenland Dialogue – an informal grouping of leading countries in the Climate Debate who are committed to bring about a substantial outcome at Copenhagen. The government of Denmark chaired the discussions of the Greenland Dialogue.

At these discussions the Vice President made interventions calling for an ambitious and equitable outcome at Copenhagen.

In addition to the Greenland Dialogue, the Vice President has also been actively participating in the formal negotiations being held in Barcelona.

During these sessions, he had held several bilateral meetings with several of our partner countries.

Most notably, the Vice President met with the Chair and Coordinators from the Group of 77 and China. The Vice President thanked the group, and especially Ambassador Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim of the Sudan for the hard work that they have been doing.

He also indicated that during the informal ministerial meeting held under the auspices of the Greenland Dialogue, the level of ambition was far below what is safe for extremely vulnerable countries such as the Maldives.

The Vice President discussed how the current proposal to peak carbon emissions at 450 ppm would not necessarily, especially in light of the Fourth IPCC report, contain global temperature rise at 2 degrees.

He emphasised that it is completely unacceptable for the Maldives to accept such a deal. Any deal on emissions reduction should happen now, should be steep and it should be fast.

The Vice President also spoke of how it is important to appeal to the global public to force leaders of industrialised countries to increase the level of ambition and opt for carbon emission levels below 350ppm instead of the 450ppm currently favoured by most developed countries.

He further stressed the importance of the work of the negotiating team on behalf of the developing countries and expressed Maldives appreciation of this effort. He assured the negotiating team that his presence in Barcelona is clear evidence of the support of Maldives for the climate negotiating process.

He clarified that the purpose of the forthcoming Climate Vulnerability Forum meeting in the Maldives is to create a coordinate response of like-minded leaders at the political level in preparation for COP 15.

The Vice President is in Spain on the invitation of the Danish Government, who along with the UN is supporting his stay in Barcelona.