Maldives pledges 100% mitigation target under Copenhagen Accord
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The Maldives has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2020, cutting its net carbon dioxide emissions by 100 percent as its contribution to tackling climate change under the Copenhagen Accord, the Maldivian government said on Sunday.
According to a statement issued by the presidential office on its official website, Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed made this pledge in a letter to Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Jan. 29.
"The Maldives' submission of its mitigation action is voluntary and unconditional...The Maldives looks forward to its mitigation action being registered and publicly available," Shaheed was quoted by the statement as saying.
The Maldives also said that its mitigation efforts should be " internationally measured, reported and verified."
Under the Copenhagen Accord, countries should inform the UNFCCC of their emissions reduction targets by Jan. 31.
The statement said its pledge is the most ambitious mitigation target so far submitted under the Copenhagen Accord.
"Climate change threatens us all. If we don't act now, we will lose the rainforests, lose the coral reefs and, potentially, lose human civilization itself," Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed said in the statement.
Although the Maldives' submission is voluntary and unconditional, the country will register a request for technological, financial and capacity building support for the implementation of its carbon neutral plan, said the statement.
The Maldives, with no part of its 1,200 low-lying islets being more than 1.8 meters or so above sea level, is among the most vulnerable countries to predicted climate change.
