The Maldives may, or may not, prove to be the winners of the Carbon World-Cup – the name being given by some environmentalists to the race to see which country actually becomes the first to be completely carbon neutral, but the Maldives have recently announced that their aim is to be carbon-neutral within ten years. This is much faster than any of the other countries that signed up to the United Nations challenge to become carbon neutral. The other entrants are New Zealand, Costa Rice, Iceland, Norway and Monaco.
The Maldives have much at stake, in fact their future may very well depend upon every country entering the Carbon World-Cup. The Maldive Islands will be among some of the first and worst affected low-lying islands to suffer ocean inundation as the sea levels rise.
The sea levels rise as the land-locked ice melts, especially now that ocean sea ice around Greenland and Antarctica is melting; and the oceans expand simply because their temperatures are increasing. Over the last 7 years, satellite measurements have shown that the sea level has been rising at 3.3mm per year (0.13inch), which is double what was recorded in the previous century. The average height of the 1,200 atoll islands is around 1.5 metres (4.8ft) so there is not much standing in the way of storm surges, especially as the sea levels rise, weather patterns intensify and repeated storm damage denude the islands, especially when the reefs protecting the atolls die from ocean acidification.
The Maldives Islands plan on using renewable energy, from solar, wind and waves, to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and hope to galvanise their small population of 310,000 into action to reduce their emissions. It will cost them over US$110 million dollars a year for ten years, to put in place the hundreds of wind-turbines and thousands of square metres of solar panels.
The Maldives is not a rich country (164th in terms of gross domestic product), yet they clearly see the threat to their paradise islands and are prepared to pay the price.
The Maldives are setting a stellar example to the rest of the world, especially the richer industrialised nations, to do something about a problem that seems to be largely the industrial world’s creation. The US$110 million is about 9.7% of their gross domestic product. If the G-20 countries did the same, and spent 9.7% of their GDP, then they would be spending US$4.573 trillion per year on combating climate change. This really puts into perspective the Maldives effort and, by contrast, the current lack of effort by the G-20 countries.
As part of the Maldives plan, should other countries fail to reduce their emissions and the sea levels rise, the Maldives government, led by President Mohamed Nasheed, have started a fund to buy land for an alternative home – perhaps in India or Sri Lanka. Perhaps some of the G-20 countries might like to donate to that fund, if they are not committed to reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions.
President Nasheed was quoted in the British Observer Newspaper as saying, "Climate change isn't a vague and abstract danger but a real threat to our survival. But climate change not only threatens the Maldives, it threatens us all." He added that: "In a grotesque Faustian pact, we have done a deal with the carbon devil: for untold fossil fuel consumption in our lifetime, we are trading our children's place in an earthly paradise. Today, the Maldives will opt out of that pact."
Trevor Williams is a University of Victoria Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate specialising in renewable energy, power grid modelling and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. He has a bachelors in Aeronautical Engineering, a Masters in Management Science and over 23 years international experience in the space industry, having worked on Earth observation and telecommunications satellites. He is the author of the Eco Geek blog.
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