Nasheed Invites Trump to the Maldives to Observe Climate Change Impact
Photo: Climate Vulnerble Forum
Secretary General of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and former President Mohamed Nasheed invited the newly inaugurated USA President Donald Trump to visit the Maldives yesterday to witness some of the challenges faced by climate-vulnerable communities.
Speaking in reference to Trumps executive order to withdraw from the multi-national Paris Accords regarding climate change, Nasheed expressed his disappointment the first climate action the Trump administration took was to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
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He said the Paris Agreement is a lifeline to the 70 member countries, who are most vulnerable to climate change.
“It enshrined a threshold for global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees for safety to be restored, and provided scales of justice to be rebalanced by the historical big emitters to, in some way, make amends for the climate damages we suffer daily,” Nasheed said in his statement.
He said combatting climate change has always been a matter of leadership and called on the United States to step up. He then invited President Trump to witness the effects of climate change in person.
“I invite the President to witness the actual impacts from storm surges to heatwaves to melting glaciers to massive crop failures so that he may reconsider the position of his administration,” he said.
Nasheed added that everyone must work together to combat climate change.
“Step by step, we must be guided by science, the most effective weapon utilised by US institutions, that leads the way towards the greater good,” Nasheed said.
He added that he is sure the United States will be back in the Paris Agreement, and until then, the remaining countries must work together to safeguard the world for a better future.
This invitation from Nasheed comes after President Trump announced his plan to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in his inaugural speech. Trump also announced he planned to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization.
