Maldives urges world nations to reach a legally binding agreement by no later than 2015

Maldives has urged the world nations to reach a legally binding agreement by no later than 2015.

Speaking at the ministerial high-level segment of the United Nations Climate Change conference, 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) and the 7th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 7) held in Durban, 28 November to 9 December, Minister of Housing and Environment, Mohamed Aslam stated that it is already too late to act and we need to reach a legally binding agreement no later than by 2015.

Minister stated that “for vulnerable countries the urgency is now. It is time to act decisively. Parties need to go beyond their long stated positions and kick-off negotiations towards a comprehensive, fair, ambitious agreement. What we seek is a legal mandate for us to work on a binding agreement and for the parties to agree that we shall start the process now and reach that agreement as soon as possible but no later than 2015”.

He congratulated the Commissioner of European Union, Ms. Connie Hedegaard for their leadership and flexibility manifested by them to commit for a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol is the only instrument with binding emission reduction targets and must remain the primary instrument governing developed country emissions for the second and subsequent commitment periods.

Speaking about the importance of reducing the emissions, he highlighted that the current pledges made by the behemoth emitters will not fulfill the target of keeping the globe below 2 degrees and if Durban cannot conclude with a legally binding agreement to close the door on raising mitigation ambitions, many of our small island states will be literally and figuratively doomed.

“Current emission reduction pledges have the world on a pathway for temperature increase of at least 4 degrees or more, which will definitely wipe out my country and many small island states from the world map”, said the minister. He stressed to act resolutely to agree to a 2012 work plan to close the Giga-tone gap, referring to the recent reports by the International Energy Agency and UNEP.