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THE CLIMATE CLOCK IS TICKING:
And the ‘island president’ is reminding us about it By Justine Xyrah Garcia
I
T has been more than a decade since Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, became the face of climate vulnerability on the global stage.
Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, now SecretaryGeneral of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, is rallying island nations to demand urgent climate action—not just to survive, but to stay rooted where they are. In an interview during his Manila visit, Nasheed warns that vulnerable economies can lose up to 40 percent of their GDP overnight due to climate disasters, insisting, “You can relocate people. But you can’t relocate the essence of a place.” PHOTO BY RED CONSTANTINO
Once imprisoned for his activism, Nasheed would later cross oceans—figuratively and quite literally—to demand that world leaders recognize what climate change meant for countries like his. Because for many island nations, it is not just an environmental crisis. It is an existential one. Now serving as SecretaryGeneral of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a bloc of 74 countries disproportionately affected by climate change, Nasheed is once again at the forefront of the fight. “We are suffering more and more,” Nasheed told BusinessMirror in an exclusive interview on a quick visit to Manila. “One storm can wipe away 20 percent of your GDP. In the Caribbean, 40 percent overnight. This is the scale.” Before taking the helm of the CVF, Nasheed was best known for ushering in democratic reforms in the Maldives. His presidency dismantled 30 years of dictatorship, restored civil liberties, and introduced democracy to millions of Maldivians who never thought such a word could exist. Even as president, however, the most pressing threat he faced came not from politics—but from the sea. Rising sea levels threatened to engulf entire islands. Ocean acidication weakened marine ecosystems. Coral bleaching wiped out large sections of the reefs that had long sustained the country’s fisheries and tourism, the backbone of the Maldives’ economy. “It’s depressing to see that [environmental degradation].... We are trying to convince others and everyone that there is a better way of doing things…done more responsibly,” Nasheed said.
Bearing the brunt
What has changed, what has not?
IN his decades-long campaign, Nasheed acknowledged that while it’s undeniably slow, he has still seen some progress. Media outlets are more willing to connect natural disasters to human-induced climate change. Lawmakers are starting to lead discussions on how to transition to a greener economy. Even the private sector has started moving, albeit cautiously. “When in the ’90s, for instance, people just didn’t believe. They said, ‘Ah, this is just the weather.’ But now people have come to realize that there is something going on,” he said. Even the business sector has begun to move. In Southeast Asia alone, green investments rose by 20 percentage points—from $5.2 billion in 2022 to $6.3 billion in 2023, according to a joint report by Bain & Company, GenZero, and Temasek. But while public awareness and private capital have increased, sup-
sonally during the Copenhagen climate summit. “It was promised to me.... They pledged, but the money doesn’t come,” he said. “And even the Loss and Damage Fund, so far it only has $700 million.... But the real value of what was given to developing countries…I don’t think it would reach even $200 million to $300 million.” Nasheed believes the reason lies in the Global North’s continuing unwillingness to acknowledge responsibility. “One is Western countries’ unwillingness to recognize.... They have not accepted that they have damaged the planet so much that it is their fault and because of their wrongs that we are suffering,” he said. “We are not suffering from what we did. We suffer from what they have done,” the CVF chief added. Instead of financing climate action, Nasheed observed that many developed countries have diverted funds to rearmament and military spending—especially in the wake of geopolitical tensions in Europe and the Middle East. “In the 1970s, there was a UN resolution to spend 0.7 percent of GDP on development aid. But no one is sticking to that. And now, even while it is so low, they are reducing the amounts,” Nasheed said.
AN aerial view of the Maldives’ fragile atolls—rings of coral barely above sea level—mirrors the growing climate peril faced by the Philippines and other low-lying nations. Visiting Manila as head of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed urged faster climate action, warning that disasters can wipe out 40% of a vulnerable country’s GDP overnight. BAREFOOTFLYER | DREAMSTIME.COM
port from the world’s wealthiest countries remains deeply lacking.
Fund for arms, little for climate crisis
OVER the last two decades, CVF member states have suffered an estimated $525 billion in losses due
to climate-related disasters. The long-promised $100-billion annual climate finance pledge—originally made by developed countries in 2009—was barely met as well. In fact, Nasheed recalled that this promise was made to him per-
FORMER Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed (right), chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, is pictured with BusinessMirror journalist Justine Xyrah Garcia during his visit to Manila to advocate for accelerated global climate action and resilience among vulnerable nations. RED CONSTANTINO
NOWHERE is climate injustice more visible than in nations like the Maldives and the Philippines—countries that have not contributed much to the global emissions but face the worst of its consequences. Stronger and more frequent storms threaten to wipe out entire atolls in the Maldives, while saltwater intrusion and coral bleaching undermine its tourism and fishing sectors. In the Philippines, successive recent typhoons like Crising, Dante, and Emong have displaced thousands of people and damaged thousands of homes. Despite these risks, the use of fossil fuel is still staggering. Independent energy think tank Ember earlier found that 59 percent of the global energy mix was still provided by fossil fuels in 2024. Nasheed said the urgency for transition is clear, but unfortunately, implementation for most countries remains sluggish. In the Philippines alone, Ember reported that solar and wind contribute just 3.8 percent as it heavily relied on fossil fuels (79 percent) in 2024—despite the country’s vast solar potential and favorable wind corridors. “The thing about renewables is it’s cheaper than fossil fuels. I mean, renewables today can be around four to five US cents a unit .... even [the] cheapest fossil fuel, you can’t get it below 10 cents, US cents,” Nasheed explained. Nasheed also dispelled the notion that shifting to green energy would displace thousands of workers. In fact, he argued that a green transition could generate more employment if planned with a “just transition” framework, allowing fossil fuel workers to shift into renewable sectors. This complements the earlier finding of the International Labour Organization (ILO) that the shift to a green economy could create up to 24 million jobs worldwide by 2030. “Any transition would have leading problems, but I think it will Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.6650 n JAPAN 0.3853 n UK 76.5657 n HK 7.2190 n CHINA 7.9189 n SINGAPORE 44.3562 n AUSTRALIA 37.3422 n EU 66.5700 n KOREA 0.0413 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.1050 Source: BSP (July 25, 2025)