19th December 2010 – The acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, H. E. Mr. Mohamed Aslam has warmly welcomed the outcome of the 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Cancun, Mexico, as a significant step forward for international efforts to address global warming.
In a letter to the Mexican Foreign Minister Ms. Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, congratulating the success of Cancun, Minister Aslam welcomed Mexico’s strong leadership, and the transparent and inclusive manner in which she conducted the negotiations. He also expressed hope that Ms. Cantellano would continue to play a key role along with South African in the “Troika” that was formed, and that the key elements set down in the Cancun Agreement would eventually form the basis of a new legally-binding treaty to tackle climate change.
Minister Aslam reflected that Maldives’ position on climate change as espoused by H.E. Mr. Mohamed Nasheed “shares a common stake in solving the climate crisis and in moving to a new development paradigm based on low-carbon technology and renewable energy.”
He expressed hope that the success of COP16 and of Ms. Cantellano’s presidency would not only be measured by the terms of the Cancun Agreement, but as moment when “we restored faith in the UNFCCC itself and in the multilateral process – when the world, in short, decided to put aside its differences and work together to protect not only the future of vulnerable States like the Maldives, but also the future of humankind and the planet they inhabit.”
