The eleventh session of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took place from 5-9 May 2014, at UN Headquarters in New York. His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Sareer, Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations made several interventions during the Session to highlight the position of the Maldives on the subjects of climate change, gender, global partnerships, water and sanitation, energy and oceans.
On the subjects of gender, water and sanitation, Maldives maintained a strong position advocating for gender equality and strong policies to improve global standards of water and sanitation. Maldives believes that equity, equality and empowerment of women can only be achieved through a stand-alone goal on gender parity. Noting that only a transformative goal can ensure women the same rights, same access and same opportunities as men, the Ambassador noted that we must, as an international community, remain committed to ending all forms of discrimination against women of all ages, with a clear target of achieving these essential objectives by 2030. With regards to Water and Sanitation, Maldives pushed for more quantitative targets to drive measurable change and effective policy. Noting from the experiences of the Maldives on the importance of rainwater, Ambassador Sareer questioned how a target such as harvesting and storage could be implemented on a global scale.
On the focus area of energy, the intervention issued by the Ambassador noted that the urgency of a renewable energy mix must be emphasized especially in view of Small Island Developing States like the Maldives that are threatened by the impacts of climate change. The Maldives, for example, is currently spending 35% of its GDP on importing fossil fuels. Unless there is a substantial partnership created to high yielding technologies, he noted, the Maldives and others would not be able to reduce this over-reliance on fossil fuels. Maldives called for quantifiable targets based on strong global partnerships that ensure a fair future for all, leaving no-one behind.
Ambassador Sareer welcomed the focus area on climate change and noted “of all the nations that could be considered most vulnerable to climate change, the Maldives has the distinction of being among the most extreme examples of this vulnerability.” Despite the extent of the challenge, Maldives is determined to address the issues of climate change, he said. In his intervention, the Ambassador explained how the Maldives is in the process of implementing a low carbon economy, yet building resilience and adaption to climate change continues to consume 27% of the country’s GDP. The Maldives position is that Climate Change should remain a focus area till the Goals are elaborated, and thereafter targets explicitly relating to climate change should be included for all goals. Maldives held the firm position that there was a need for quantitative targets that keeps every Member State bound to hold the increase in the average global temperature at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Ambassador Sareer represented the agenda of the Maldives’ and other SIDS by reiterating the call for the need of a stand-alone Goal on Oceans in the Sustainable Development Goals. He noted that even by the most conservative estimates, over 30% of the world's fish stocks are overexploited and another 50% are fully exploited. Therefore, there has to be an end to perverse subsidies that promote overfishing as soon as possible and in this regard the Maldives support goals to end this, but are of the view that the timeframe needs to be advanced to “by 2020” rather than 2030. Further, the Ambassador supported the idea of a target on sustainable tourism under the Ocean focus area.
Referring to the focus area on Global Partnerships, Ambassador Sareer urged the need for concrete timeframes and quantitative measures while identifying targets. He said that if the world were to learn from the shortcomings of MDG8, it should ensure the SDGs are better guided.
