Maldives president vows to create carbon neutral nation

President Mohamed Nasheed, leader of the Maldives, a tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, has vowed that his will become the world’s first carbon-neutral country in the world. Pres. Nasheed said that his goal was to swear off oil and other fossil fuels and for the Maldives to get all of its energy from renewable sources like wind and solar within ten years. “Going green might cost a lot but refusing to act now will cost us the Earth,” Nasheed said in a written statement.

Nasheed’s motivation is the expected rise in sea levels over the next century due to global warming. The Maldives are perhaps the country most at-risk in the world to global warming since much of the island chain is only five feet (or less) above sea level; the highest point - if you can call it that - is only about eight feet high, two feet lower than a regulation basketball hoop. So even a modest rise in sea level means a big loss of land in the Maldives.

Nasheed in fact is so concerned about the future effects of global warming that back in November he pledged to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund - the financial instrument used by resource-rich states like Saudi Arabia to invest the revenue generated by selling oil on behalf of the government - to one day buy a new homeland for the 300,000 citizens of the Maldives if (or when) their islands become uninhabitable. The Maldives Sovereign Wealth Fund will be supported by the islands’ billion-dollar tourism sector. Nasheed suggested that India or Sri Lanka could be a good future home for the Maldivians because of similar cultures and climates, though Australia could also be an option because of the vast amounts of open land available.

“Kuwait might invest in companies; we will invest in land,” Nasheed said.