The Maldives and India have opened talks on closer work in the environment sector. Climate Change, Environment and Energy Minister Ali Shareef met India’s Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav in Ulaabaatar.
Ahmed Shaan, Director of Knowledge Management, Research and Assessment, joined the Maldivian side.
Both ministers traveled to Mongolia for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The two sides used the meeting to restate the closeness of the bilateral relationship. They then turned to Maldives-India environmental cooperation and atmospheric science.
The talks covered concrete ground. The two countries examined joint work on conservation and on mapping coastlines that erosion has damaged. They looked at building the Maldives’ capacity to read Earth observation data and identify climate risks from it. They also discussed protecting mangroves, coastal areas and marine biodiversity.
Institutions featured heavily in the Maldives-India environmental cooperation agenda. The ministers discussed tighter links between technical bodies in the two countries. They also weighed capacity-building programmes for Maldivian staff.
Both sides agreed to turn the Maldives-India environmental cooperation talks into formal agreements. They also commented to strengthening climate resilience work across South Asia.
The Maldives pressed a separate case at COP17. Its delegation argued that the Convention must weigh the circumstances of small island states when it sets international standards and designs its financial assistance mechanisms.