Sustainability, Climate Change and Development are inherently intertwined and cannot be viewed in isolation of each other, says Maldives.  The statement was made by His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Sareer, Permanent Representative of Maldives to the United Nations while speaking at the 7th Session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals.

 

Ambassador Sareer stated that the Maldives considers climate change as more than a cross cutting issue rather it is the enabling environment for progress in sustainable development.  For the Maldives and other Small Island States, he said, whichever way the Millennium Development Goals or any new set of Sustainable Development Goals is approached, climate change will remain a threat to the mere survival of these countries.

 

Therefore, he called on the United Nations system for a more dependable, consistent and ambitious approach to addressing Climate Change while working towards achieving a new global agreement on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris 2015 as well as making use of the synergies and inter-linkages with topics like transport, energy, sustainable consumption and production, and the oceans.

 

During the statement, Ambassador Sareer further highlighted the experiences Maldives is going through following intense, frequent and extreme weather events such as severe flooding and storm events causing damages to the vital and limited infrastructure thereby affecting livelihoods including the economic activities. Furthermore, change in weather patterns and sea level rise also impact on the access to fresh water supply.  While change in rainfall patterns is already causing huge impact on availability and quality of rainwater, trans-boundary pollution and contaminants from sewerage has polluted the ground water, he said.  This in turn poses major challenges to the country’s development path.