Climate Change A Bigger Threat Than Islamic Radicalism, Says Nasheed

He said if one thinks that the issue of "climate change is effecting only Maldives today, remember it is going to happen to you tomorrow. If you think this is only a Maldives issue, you cannot be more wrong than this," the President warned.

He said climate change will alter the nature of the planet, reducing its resources and leading to more and more conflicts. This will lead to huge refugee problems, he warned.

The President said he agreed fully with the Indian stand on climate change, but he appealed to India to make use of renewable energy to provide energy to over 300 million people without electricity.

"Why you want to go to yesterday's diesel when you can go for tomorrow's renewable energy and new technology?," he asked the conference chaired by Mr. Shyam Saran, Prime Minister's Envoy on Climate Change.

"The world is on the threshold of new technology and you will be in the forefront if you use them," he said, advocating smaller, local units to provide cheaper energy instead of huge plants set up by multinationals. "I am sure India can succeed through many ways," he added.

Mr. Shyam Saran assured the President that India is doing everything possible to curb carbon emissions, drawing his attention to the plan of the government to use more and more renewable source of energy.

Mr. Shyam Saran said now negotiations are being carried out on what he described as "adversarial mode and they ended up on least common denominator.

Mr. Sunjoy Joshi, Distinguished Fellow, ORF, said while it would be simplistic to blame the environmental changes and climate for the ills of the world including radicalism, terror, piracy, insurgencies and dictatorships, climate change if not addressed holistically will surely aid in the increasing the frequency and extremities of these hateful agendas.

"Climate Change has helped us all understand that security and prosperity cannot be nation centric and must be at the level of the individual and hence we must now revisit security in terms of human security that would include not only the physical elements but secure his social and development aspirations and needs," Mr. Joshi said in his welcome address.

Mr. Joshi said "any agreement that the world reaches at Copenhagen or thereafter must necessarily strive towards converging levels of Human Development and Human Security and cannot serve to maintain status quo".

Source-ANI
ARU