Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu will travel to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai with hopes this year’s event will spur long-awaited action on climate change.
President Muizzu, who was inaugurated on November 17, has called for increased international cooperation and finance on climate-related issues to assist small island nations like the Maldives.
“[E]very coral that’s bleached, every piece of land that’s contaminated, every fish that dies because of this climate change should be properly addressed. And that’s not the way it’s going so far,” Muizzu said in an interview.
The Maldives, with 80 percent of its land less than one meter above sea level, is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the effects of climate change. Climate change-related impacts, such as increased coastal erosion and saline intrusion caused by sea-level rise, are increasingly jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of Maldivians, including by straining the country’s already limited freshwater supply.