Poor nations vow low-carbon path

Some countries believe climate change will increase the need for food aid

Poor countries considered vulnerable to climate change have pledged to embark on moves to a low-carbon future, and challenge richer states to match them.

The declaration from the first meeting of a new 11-nation forum calls on rich countries to give 1.5% of their GDP for climate action in the developing world.

It also calls for much tougher limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

The forum was established by Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed to highlight the climate “threat” to poor nations.

The declaration contends that man-made climate change poses an “existential threat to our nations, our cultures and to our way of life, and thereby undermines the internationally protected human rights of our people”.

The Maldives are threatened principally by rising sea levels, as are other other nations within the Climate Vulnerable Forum (V11) such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and the Pacific island of Kiribati.

President Nasheed recently held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the issue.

The forum also includes nations likely to be impacted by melting glaciers essential to freshwater supplies (Bhutan and Nepal) and by drought (Kenya and Tanzania).

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