26 January 2016, New York; Speaking at a high-level dialogue of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Mr Ahmed Sareer, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Maldives to the United Nations, called for the inclusion of climate change, alongside sustainable development and sustaining peace, as part of a triangular, inter-linked framework that placed the most vulnerable at the centre, in particular Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
In its intervention at the High-Level Dialogue on "Building Sustainable Peace for All: Synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustaining Peace", held from 24-25 January 2017, the Maldives warned of the serious risks climate change poses for both the sustaining peace agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which are especially severe for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as the Maldives.
The Maldives highlighted the fact that climate change, in addition to exacerbating their already magnified vulnerability to external shocks, threatens to progressively undermine the foundations of the economies of SIDS, making sustainable development an all-but-impossible goal.
Over seventy member states, observer states, and inter-governmental organizations took part in the High-Level Dialogue, in addition to representatives of civil society, academia, and the private sector. The High-Level Dialogue was also addressed by the Secretary-General, the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, and the Presidents of the General Assembly, the Security Council, and the Economic and Social Council.
