Amidst a wave of positive announcements about plans for substantial greenhouse gas reductions and contributions to the Green Climate Fund leading up to the G20 in Australia, the Foreign Minister of the Maldives, the Hon. Dunya Maumoon, issued the following statement:
“We stand at a watershed moment in the effort to address climate change. After decades of false starts and broken promises, the world is finally starting to see the central components of meaningful agreement come together in time for the U.N. climate negotiations in Lima at the end of the month, which is meant to lay the ground work for a legally binding agreement, applicable to all parties, next year in Paris.
“The announcement that the world’s two biggest emitters, the U.S. and China, are serious about putting the world on a sustainable energy pathway, will help revive confidence in the international community’s ability to address this crisis.
“Just as crucially, announcements from the U.S. and Japan of up to $4.5 billion in pledges to the Green Climate Fund, on top of significant pledges from France, Germany, Sweden, and other climate leaders goes a long way toward giving assurances to developing and vulnerable countries that the support we need to make a clean energy transformation ourselves will be there. There is much more work to be done in the days and weeks ahead, of course, but we are optimistic that we are finally headed in the right direction.”
ENDS.
