President Nasheed of the Maldives says Commonwealth should focus on key issues of democracy and climate change
Posted by ZoeWare - 10/09/09 at 09:09 pmPresident Nasheed of the Maldives thinks the Commonwealth should be procatively encouraging democracy and redefining international relations in respect to climate change.
Q: What are the Commonwealth’s core strengths?
Nasheed: Its members, its people, its vision, its beliefs, and?especially the wealth of experience it has from a number of cultures and traditions. The Commonwealth understands how the international community may be able to deal with a certain set of problems or an issue in the international arena more than any other institution. Now I don’t want to mention other institutions, but some of the other institutions have done very silly things in trying to settle issues and coming up with solutions for problems. So its people.
Q: What key issues do you think the Commonwealth should be focusing on?
Nasheed: Democracy and climate change. Now I think both of these things are very interrelated and linked. Democracy, human rights and climate change are all linked. Without good governance we can not have the kinds of adaptation programmes, neither can we have the kinds of mitigation programmes, that we want. So it is very important to have a structure that delivers consultation: and multiparty democracy seems to be the only thing around. And it works – it is working in the Maldives.
So the Commonwealth should focus very much on proactively encouraging democracy. They could do more in that, not just simply after the fall of a regime or when a regime is toppled. After having said this, I do understand and I do realise how sophisticatedly the Commonwealth has been dealing with a number of issues, especially in the case of the Maldives. Their engagement was, at times when we were in the opposition, frustrating. At times we thought they were not doing much, but I think their methods of engagement have yielded good results, they should keep at it.
Q: 2009 is the 60th anniversary year of the Commonwealth. How would you like to see the Commonwealth evolve in the coming years?
Nasheed: Well, I think CMAG (Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group) should become more of a body that encourages good governance, and that countries should be brought to CMAG if they don’t behave well. They should also encourage development of the judiciary and development of institutions that enhance democracy.
In climate change I think it would be good if the Commonwealth ‘would’ encourage more carbon neutral policies, and encourage governments to become carbon neutral. We see climate change as a security issue, as a human rights issue, as a justice issue, more than an environmental issue. So we should really redefine international relations, and I think the Commonwealth can be at the forefront of redefining international relations in respect to climate change.
Do you agree with the President? Should the Commonwealth be focusing its efforts on democracy and climate change? Let us know what you think by commenting below.
Category : Climate Change & Environment, Democracy & Good Governance, homepage items
Tags: climate change, democracy, Maldives, Nasheed
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July 24th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Sound words, could’t agree more. Democracy and the environment are more connected than most people would think.
August 1st, 2009 at 11:51 am
Invictus
I totally agree with you.
In Sri Lanka vast areas of forests have been cleared to accomodate 300,000 Tamils behind barbed wire and heavy military guard.
Sinhalese fishermen use banned fishing nets in seas around Tamil areas with the help of Sri Lankan Navy.
Now the government is planning to put up a cement factory in Jaffna peninsula the terrain of which has been already ravaged by the occupation army. Jaffna has a very fragile geology and a very hostile geography. Three decades of war has already wreaked havoc on it. aerial bombing of the last thirty years have destroyed millions of palms and the soil is devastated recklessly.
Genuine Sinhalese scientists have been very worried about it. With the present clampdown on free expression, things are going to be disastrous.
August 1st, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Climate change is an alarming phenomenon in this era and need immediate action !!!!!!!
As raised in the above the interview democracy and climate change are linked,
I would rather say that good governance and climate change are linked ,through ggod governance each and every state will adopt policies to alleviate the impact of climate change .
DO YOU AGREE IF I SAY THAT EVEN A NON DEMOCARTIC STATE IS CONCERNED WITH CLIMATE CHANGE ????
Democratic or not each state is found in this world which is disappering daily ,so we are concerned .
Through good governace and diplomacy ,climate change and environmental degradation can be alleviated .
August 1st, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Getting a grip on Greenland’s future
“Look,” they say, “the ice is melting. Unless we dramatically cut our emissions now, the Greenland Ice Sheet and our planet are in peril.”
Are they right? Do scientific studies of the Greenland Ice Sheet indicate that catastrophe is around the corner?
View of the fjord from the air
There is uncertainty over how much Greenland’s ice sheet will melt
The answer does not seem to be entirely straightforward.
The Ilulissat glacier has indeed retreated dramatically in recent years – more than 15km in the last decade alone – but plenty of evidence suggests such rapid change in the ice is not unprecedented.
In fact, over the last 10,000 years (a period of long-term warming since the end of the last Ice Age), the glaciers on Greenland’s west coast have been through many periods of advance and retreat.
Four thousand years ago, the Earth was significantly warmer than it is now, and accordingly the glacier retreated; but the evidence suggests it was perhaps only 20km back from its current position.
In other words, the Ilulissat glacier may reach a point in its retreat where the dynamics of the ice sheet make further regression very difficult, and very slow.
So when the more excitable climate campaigners claim that Greenland’s ice sheet – which contains roughly 10% of the world’s fresh water – is “melting” and that catastrophic rises in sea level can be expected within a century, it is advisable to take a deep breath and ponder the complexities of the ice.
Ilulissat
Ilulissat is a popular destination for “green-tinged politicians and celebrities”
The increased speed of flow of the Ilulissat glacier – from 7 to 14 km in a single year – means that an extraordinary mass of ice is indeed being disgorged into the sea.
Glaciologists reckon as much as 35 cubic kilometres of ice each year is being shed from this one outlet alone. But there is a countervailing trend.
Increased precipitation over the ice sheet, ie more snow, means at least some of the loss of mass in the ice sheet is being made good.
A boat in the fjord (Image: BBC)
The sea level is going to rise, but by how much in the coming century?
It may even be that the ice in the middle of the Greenland sheet is becoming thicker while it is retreating at the margins.
Even the experts are not entirely sure how to explain the dramatic speeding up of ice movement and melt inside the Illulisat fjord.
Danish glaciologist Andreas Ahlstroem believes a significant warming of the sea is a crucial factor. But glacier movement is quickening far into the ice sheet, suggesting that increased meltwater underneath the ice is also having a major impact.
Could the retreat of Greenland’s glaciers be a harbinger of a much bigger change: the disappearance of the entire ice sheet?
Given even the most gloomy temperature projections for the next century that is extremely unlikely.
The ice in the middle of Greenland is some three kilometres thick and, deep down, it is hundreds of thousands of years old.
Indeed this core ice provides an invaluable record of conditions that prevailed during the last great interglacial period, which came to an end more than 100,000 years ago.
Greenland has not always been icebound. Two and a half million years ago it was covered in forest and heath, but even the worst-case scenario of man-made climate change is unlikely to reduce the northern hemisphere’s greatest mass of ice to a pathetic pile of slush in the foreseeable future.
extracted from BBC NEWS- GETTING A GRIP ON GREENLAND FUTURE .
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
It is a very good sign to see the President of a country say: ”Commonwealth should focus very much on proactively encouraging democracy.”
I think this links up well with what Rt Hon David Miliband spoke of ”deep version of democracy” at the launching event.
How about a preiodic review of governance of each member? This will force each member to take responsibility of improvement in governance.
Otherwise members will go on ganging up together aganist any sanctions and we will never move forward.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Climate change will be the greatest threat to human life in this century.
The evidence is all there. The melting ice sheet in both the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic (over which the Commonwealth holds considerable suzeranity), the erratic and constantly worsening weather conditions, floods across Europe, and Asia?
And let?s not forget the science. Carbon emissions are forming an additional layer in our atmosphere which trpas the sun?s heat and radiation within it, negating the remaining ozone which we have.
The Commonwealth must dedicate the next sixty years, and the next six hundred after that, to fighting the causes of Climate change. And the way forward is science.
The Commonwealth?s educational and research institutions are second to none. The sheer amount of potential in all Commonwealth states is staggering.
I suggest that the Commonwealth pool this resource and institute a Commonwealth Scientific Forum where the brains of all member states can convene.
First on the agenda must be developing alternative forms of transportation to the existingones. Currently, the greatest volume of Carbon emissions comes from international shipping. Fossil-fuel burning engines must be altered and ships converted to alternative forms of propulsion ? possibly some form of wind turbine or electric motor.
Similarly, the most harmful carbon emissions come from Aeroplanes releasing CO2 directly into the upper atmosphere. luckily, a workable alternative technology already exists to counter this: Airships.
While images of theburning Hindenburg usually accompany any image of the historic zeppelins, the fact remains that, in most cases, even Hydrogen-filled airships were perfectly safe. With modern safety regulations such incidents would nevr again occur. Added to this, Helium, the marginally heavier buoyant gas, is totally safe and actually fire retardent.
Some models of semi-rigid workable airships have been produced by Commonwealth scientists in recent years. If the Commonwealth can design and manufacture a workable model of a 21st century airship then it will have done more for the health of the planet than a thousand rock concerts could ever achieve.
The Commonwealth must mobilise all its scientific resources to overcoming these fundamental practical obstacles. This is a new role for the organisation, and one which, if the opportunity is missed, will see the loss of a great deal of human life.
Charles, Prince of Wales, is campaigning to save the Amazon Rainforset. The Commonwealth must lend impetus to this and other campaigns like it, and put its own house in order with regard to deforestation. Member states who depend on the export and trade of Timber must be given help to find new sources of income. Environmental damage must be reduced to zero, and new conservation and natural restoration projects must be carried out.
Climate change and our impact on the planet will be the primary issues of this century. The Commonwealth must start the ball rolling as an international body. The United Nations won?t, nor will anyone else.
Commonwealth, make a start and set the example!
August 6th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Lowings, inspirational stuff! If only this spirit could be conveyed to Heads of Government!
So much opportunity sitting unnoticed.
August 16th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Climate Change is here with us affecting different parts of the world in many different ways, I am of the view that we are talking to much about what should be done ——
We need to take action and DO IT, the time for action is NOW
September 27th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Commonwealth should have spokespersons for different issues. Nasheed should be spokesman for climate change. or they should have a special committee is deal issues. bring people together.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:49 am
President Nasheed spoke out again this week about climate change to Commonwealth News. He said that that the threat is the 21st century’s greatest human rights and security issue.
Click here to read the full interview on the Commonwealth Secretariat website:
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/34580/214749/141009maldivespresident.htm