Environment Minister Thoriq Ibrahim has urged developed countries to mobilise funds for climate change adaptation and mitigation activities in small island states.
He made the appeal at the twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) held in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Addressing the meeting as the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), he said the Paris Agreement and its decision instruct that financial resources should be scaled up and to achieve a balance between adaptation and mitigation.
Small island states appreciate developed countries for producing a road map on how they will achieve the US$100 billion goal annually by 2020, and their commitment to significantly increase finance for adaptation, the minister said.
“However, the current projection is for a doubling from current levels that would only result in some 20 percent of financial resources being directed to adaptation. This is indeed worrisome in light of the estimates that adaptation costs for developing countries will be within the range of US$140 billion to US$300 billion per annum by 2030,” he added.
He emphasised the importance of the urgent need for adaptation for small island developing states, highlighting the shifting rain patterns in the Indian Ocean, which led to droughts in one corner of the archipelago, while also bringing in unprecedented rains to the other.
Thoriq said the majority of islands in the Maldives currently experience coastal erosion, adding that the estimated cost to protect shorelines in only the inhabited islands would exceed US$8.7 billion, which is more than twice the country’s GDP.
“The price for adaptation in Maldives and other small island developing states is staggering, and way beyond what could realistically be mobilised from within our means,” he further said. “Small Island states therefore need assurance that their financing needs for adaptation will be met and further that they will be met through prioritisation of SIDS for access to public and grant based resources for adaptation.”
The minister concluded his address saying that it is important to “take a measured and targeted approach that can track progress towards the balancing of adaptation and mitigation finance and ensuring that the most vulnerable countries get the assistance they need.”
The 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP-22. COP-22, which began on November 7 and runs through November 18, is the first such meeting since the historic adoption of the Paris Agreement at COP-21 in December of last year.