Voice for Vulnerable Nations

Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih delivered an impassioned address to world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, calling on the major carbon-emitting nations to take immediate and binding action to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"Our islands are not bargaining chips in your economic negotiations. Our homes, our culture, our very existence is at stake," the President declared to a packed General Assembly hall, drawing a standing ovation from delegates of small island states.

The Maldives, along with 38 other small island developing states, has submitted a joint declaration demanding that developed nations reach net-zero emissions by 2040, ten years earlier than currently committed, and that the Loss and Damage fund established at COP27 be fully capitalized by 2025.