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Maldives warns climate change more dangerous than terrorism

NEW DELHI: Maldives President Mohammad Nasheed on Friday pleaded enlisting climate change issues on the agenda of UN Security Council, saying it was a bigger challenge than international terrorism.

He said environmental challenges and conflict resolution were inter-related as global warming was affecting an estimated 300,000 people every year. “Climate change is going to affect a large number of people through flashfloods, diseases and massive human displacement due to sea (level) rise, besides creating food scarcity,” he said while delivering a speech at a think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

He said Maldives and other small islands were facing extinction due to rising sea levels.

“It is important to defend the Maldives which is on the frontline of climate change. If it can happen today to our nation, tomorrow it can happen with you as well,” he said appealing for immediate flow of funds for mitigation measures. “We have to believe that climate change is happening and the world is going to end. We have to be able to find a mechanism, a way of getting out of this impasse and try to find an amicable and a politically acceptable solution to the whole issue,” Nasheed added.

Nasheed said the issue needed to be included in the UN Security Council agenda, as global warming would also have an impact on security. Regretting that climate change negotiations were not proceeding the way they should have, the Maldives president said, “We don’t want Copenhagen to come out with an empty piece of paper. We want a solid piece of paper, with a guarantee for our security and the security of the world.” iftikhar gilani

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