The Maldives are facing the danger of going underwater, unable to build critical infrastructures, as sea-walls, and have therefore asked the United Nations for financing to deal with the climate change.
Specifically, speaking to Reuters, archipelago’s former president Mohamed Nasheed highlighted the possibility of losing the entire islands unless they manage to acquire any cheap financing to tackle climate change.
However, for the time being the Maldives have struggled to find the money needed to construct infrastructure, such as sea-walls.
In the meantime, during COP 25 the Maldives, along with other vulnerable countries, pushed for concrete progress on fresh funding to help them deal with disasters and longer-term damage linked to climate change – but failed.
It is reported that more than 80% of the land of the island is less than one meter above mean sea levels; This means, that the populations is extremely vulnerable to storms, sea swells and severe weather conditions.
Also, the Maldives’ main industries are tourism and fishing; both heavily depend on coastal resources and most settlements and critical infrastructure is concentrated along the coast. Thus, Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid quoted to Reuters that ‘For small states, it is not easy … By the time the financing is obtained, we may be underwater.’
Furthermore, on an annual basis, the Maldives spent about $10 million for coastal protection works, but will need up to $8.8 billion in total to shield all of its inhabited islands, according to a 2016 estimate by its environment ministry.
The Foreign Minister added that for the protection of the islands, it is crucial to build ‘sea walls’, that although an expensive infrastructure it will prove to be helpful.
Concluding, the United Nations has created a pot to help developing nations, called the Green Climate Fund, which has already approved nearly $24 million in funding to the Maldives, according to its website.
