The Vice President, His Excellency Hussain Mohamed Latheef, delivered a powerful address during the Climate Breakfast at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2024, emphasising the need for unified action within the Commonwealth to tackle the escalating climate crisis. The event, held on the sidelines of the 2024 CHOGM in the Caribbean, gathered world leaders to discuss climate challenges ahead of COP29.
The Vice President’s remarks focused on the increasing severity of global climate impacts, including rising temperatures and extreme weather events such as hurricanes. He pointed out that 2024 is on track to be the hottest year in recorded history, underscoring the urgent need for collective action. “Many of us here have already experienced extreme weather events, at a scale we have never witnessed before,” Vice President Latheef said, highlighting the devastating hurricanes currently impacting the Atlantic.
Vice President Latheef called for a renewed focus on climate finance as the Commonwealth prepares for COP29 in Azerbaijan, advocating for a new collective quantified goal on climate finance. He stressed the importance of exceeding the previously agreed 100 billion dollars per year and ensuring that this new goal includes targeted sub-goals for loss and damage response, mitigation, and adaptation. This, he argued, should be coupled with changes to the international financial architecture, which currently fails to address the development needs of vulnerable nations.
A key highlight of Vice President Latheef’s speech was the emphasis on the barriers many Commonwealth nations face in accessing climate finance. He commended the support the Maldives has received from the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub, which has deployed a Climate Finance Advisor to assist the country in attracting climate funds. This initiative, he said, will play a crucial role in structuring the Maldives’ Climate Change Fund.
Vice President Latheef urged the Commonwealth family to approach COP29 with a willingness to bridge the gap between ambition and action, stating that the conference must not conclude without an agreed-upon climate finance goal. He also encouraged Commonwealth members to prepare for the submission of their third Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) next year, following the results of the first global stocktake and reiterated the Maldives’ commitment to increasing its climate ambitions.
The 2024 CHOGM has provided a critical platform for addressing climate-related challenges, particularly for vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like the Maldives. As climate impacts intensify, the need for collective Commonwealth action and support for ambitious climate finance has never been more urgent.
In closing, Vice President Latheef called on Commonwealth nations to act decisively and collaboratively to safeguard the future of both people and the planet.
