The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives, Abdulla Shahid, urged the UN General Assembly to reflect on the need for a fairer and more resilient world in the face of climate change. For small island developing states, “the difference between 1.5 and 2.0 degrees is death, warned the Maldivian diplomat in his speech before the plenary in New York.
Shahid reaffirmed his country’s continued advocacy and leadership in a rights-based approach to climate action and announced Male’s candidacy for a Human Rights Council seat from 2023 to 2025.
Maldives will prioritize the fight against climate change as an integral part of the global harangue on human rights, announced the head of the island country’s diplomacy.
Protecting the world’s oceans
At the national level, he said, the Maldives launched the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh work program on the global adaptation goal this year and will continue to pursue the goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Also, the island nation supports the global initiative to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by that date.
The Maldivian Foreign Minister also stressed that to face the climate crisis there must be sustainable financing. On the other hand, he highlighted that Maldives allocated 33 percent of the seats in its local councils to women, appointed several of them as judges of the Supreme Court and half of its ambassadors are female.
On Palestine
He also reiterated the national position on the question of Palestine of a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, as the only meaningful solution for peace.
In another part of his intervention, the Maldivian foreign minister called for a reform of the multilateral system to better equip the United Nations to face contemporary and future challenges, and welcomed the resolution to create the UN Youth Office.
The Security Council, Shahid continued, must increase the number of permanent and non-permanent seats, and ensure equitable geographical representation, in addition to increasing the substantial role and moral authority of the General Assembly.
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