Islands shun deal with carbon devil (From Smallholder)

Islands shun deal with carbon devil

11:50pm Friday 3rd July 2009

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President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives will be a guest at the opening press conference of the inaugural Times/Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment this Sunday, 5 July 2009.

He will detail the impact that climate change, particularly rising sea levels and more frequent storms, is having on the Maldives and explain why global emissions cuts are so crucial.

In March this year, the President announced that the Maldives, a group of tropical islands just 1.5m above sea level, would become the world’s first carbon-neutral country, switching from oil to renewables within ten years.

In the Observer newspaper, the President wrote: “In a grotesque Faustian pact, we have done a deal with the carbon devil: for untold fossil fuel consumption in our lifetime, we are trading our children's place in an earthly paradise. Today, the Maldives will opt out of that pact.”

The World Forum, from 5-7 July at Keble College, Oxford, will address the question: Is there a model for low-carbon growth? The outcome of discussions between more than 200 politicians, businesses leaders and academics will contribute to climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

At the press conference this Sunday, the President will be joined by four other World Forum speakers: Sir David King, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and UK Government chief scientist from 2000-2008; Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen and an expert on the effects of climate change on marine and other ecosystems; Professor Calestous Juma from Harvard University in the US, who will warn that resistance to new technologies is hampering progress on cutting emissions; Dr Ulrich von Deessen, the Climate Protection Officer at multi-national chemicals firm, BASF.

The Smith School was established in 2008 to bring together leading academics, businesses and politicians worldwide to tackle climate change and related environmental problems.

Sir David King said: “The World Forum is an opportunity for global leaders to determine the range of low-carbon development models that will be implemented over the coming decades. The event will take us beyond the scientific imperatives for action and the ongoing Copenhagen negotiations.”

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