Oxford Greens help Maldives plan to go carbon neutral

By Andrew Ffrench »

TWO Green Party activists from Oxford have been hired by Mohamed Nasheed, the president of the Maldives, to save the low-lying islands from the effects of climate change.

Mark Lynas and Chris Goodall have been asked to come up with a plan to make the Indian Ocean nation carbon-neutral within 10 years.

'If the Maldives can go carbon-neutral, it puts pressure on richer countries to follow suit'

Mark Lynas

The pair have been invited to fly to the sun-kissed islands to continue their research, but are reluctant to travel because of the environmental impact of air travel.

They were asked to help after the president’s aides read a copy of Mr Lynas’s book, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet.

The 35-year-old father-of-two received an email from the Maldives government last month, and after meeting the country’s Vice-President in London, he and fellow environmentalist Chris Goodall have drawn up a detailed proposal.

Mr Lynas said: “You sit in the Bodleian Library writing these books and don’t realise the effect they can have on people — it’s extraordinary what life throws at you and I’m delighted.

“There has been a recent change of government in the Maldives and the president is very keen to address climate change, because the entire country could be submerged by the end of the century.

“Various communities in the Maldives have already had to move away from the sea, because of incremental coastal erosion. If the Maldives can go carbon-neutral, it puts pressure on richer countries to follow suit.

“When I met the Vice-President in London a few weeks ago, he said ‘you must come and see our country’ but I told him I’m not one for beaches, particularly those at the end of an international flight.”

Mr Lynas said he had not been offered any money, nor asked for any from the Maldives government, but would accept expenses if the project took up a large amount of time.

He enlisted the help of Mr Goodall, the Green Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon, to prepare the report.

Mr Goodall said: “In places like Oxford, we’re generating emissions that make it almost certain the Maldives could be flooded within about 50 years, so I’m happy to volunteer my services in this way.

“This is a $1bn (£715m) scheme and is dependent partly on funding from institutions like the World Bank.

“The Maldives relies heavily on tourism, so flights to the country would have to be offset by the Maldives buying emissions trading permits.”

Speaking from the Maldives, a presidential aide told the Oxford Mail Mr Lynas and Mr Goodall had an “open invitation” to fly to the Maldives to carry out on-the-spot research.

He added: “Mark’s book was doing the rounds in the President’s office, so we asked Mark and Chris Goodall to put together a report on the feasibility of going carbon-neutral.

“That was enough to persuade President Nasheed to announce the Maldives’ plan to become the world’s first carbon-neutral country within a decade — that’s no easy task.”

According to Mr Goodall, the carbon dioxide emissions on a return flight from London to the Maldives is about 2.4 tonnes. This is about a fifth of the average Briton’s annual emissions.

Under the new Climate Change Act, the UK’s emissions will need to fall by 80 per cent by 2050.