Flood-threatened Maldives pledges to go carbon neutral

The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, threw down the gauntlet to rich nations yesterday, announcing plans for the Indian Ocean country to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020 and challenging other nations to adopt similarly ambitious targets.

The 1,200 low-lying islands that make up the Maldives are home to 385,000 people, but none of the coral islands are more than 1.8 metres above sea level and they are at serious risk of being inundated if the latest scientific predictions that sea levels could rise by more than one metre by the end of the century prove accurate.

Announcing the new initiative following the world premiere of new climate change film The Age of Stupid, Nasheed urged other countries to follow the Maldives example.

"We understand more than perhaps anyone what would happen to us if we didn't do anything about it or if the rest of the world doesn't find the imagination to confront this problem," Nasheed told the BBC. "We think we can do it, we feel that everyone should be engaged in it, and we don't think that this is an issue that should be taken lightly."

The Maldives plan has been developed by British climate change experts Chris Goodall and Mark Lynas and will involve the installation of 155 wind turbines, half a square kilometre of solar panels, and a biomass plant that will burn coconut husks.

The renewable energy technologies will be supported by battery systems capable of providing back up power and will provide power to both electric cars and boats, as well as buildings.

The plan is estimated to cost about $110m a year over the next 10 years, but Nasheed said that the accompanying reduction in fuel imports meant that the scheme could pay for itself within 11 years assuming oil prices recover to about $100 a barrel.

The move makes the Maldives the fifth country to set a formal target of carbon neutrality after Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Costa Rica last year signed up to a UN-backed initiative to achieve carbon neutrality. However, the Maldives is likely to beat them all to carbon neutral statues if it meets its target of decarbonising the economy by 2020.

In related news, the Japanese government this weekend announced plans to make $5bn of green loans available to developing countries.

Announcing the scheme at the G20 meeting of rich nations in the south of England, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said that the money would be made available to renewable energy, water infrastructure and green transport projects mainly in Asia over the next two years.

The loans are expected to be made through the state-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and will aim to help stimulate Asian economies as well as cut carbon emissions.