The Island President is an outspoken man. That would be Mohamed Nasheed, the 44-year-old president of Maldives, who wants India to embrace new, green technologies soon, to reduce its carbon footprint because he says every such step is important for his island nation, which faces the threat of submergence due to climate change by the end of the century.
Nasheed is the subject of a documentary film, The Island President, which premiered at the just ended Toronto International Film Festival or TIFF, and won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award for the best documentary at the event, a big thumbs up from the viewing public. The documentary, directed by American filmmaker Jon Shenk, chronicles Nasheed’s first year in office and his constant reminders to the world of the risks posed by climate change and rising sea levels to his low-lying nation comprising 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean. The film ends with an inside look at his trip to the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.
In an interview with Business Standard, Nasheed, who visited TIFF to talk about the documentary and his call for urgent action against climate change, asked the Indian government to show leadership on the issue. “It’s the new technology, it’s the coming age, the new thing,” said Nasheed, referring to clean energy technologies, and added: “If India can’t embrace that, it can’t be the leader it wants to become.”
Nasheed made it clear that Maldives does not support G77, the bloc of developing countries including India, which has emphasised unity within the group to counter developed countries at climate change negotiations. “We want to come up with a new bloc, a more progressive group, a group of countries who are willing to go carbon neutral. Costa Rica, Ethiopia, we’ve got four to five countries now. We don’t necessarily want to, certainly don’t want to go into G77. They don’t represent our viewpoint or our interests.”
As countries prepare for a UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, later this year, legally binding cuts on greenhouse gas emissions remains a contentious issue. While the Kyoto Protocol called for binding cuts from developed countries (except the US, which refused to join), developing countries were exempted. Now, developed countries, especially in Europe, want fast growing economies like China and India to agree to binding cuts. India has in the past opposed such proposals.
The Maldives leader said developed countries were not the only ones with this demand. “We are not asking to necessarily cut emissions. What we are suggesting is, invest in renewable energy to the extent that it amounts to reduction in carbon emissions.” Asked about India’s argument that it needs to balance environmental concerns with development, Nasheed said: “This is development. If you do your maths properly…if India is refusing to give a peaking year, which means they want to go on emitting, do you know how much carbon that is, how much fuel that is, and how much money that is?”
And as a president who once held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting to drive home the point that his country could face the same fate in the future, Nasheed was in his element sharing the red carpet and spotlight in Toronto with the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Bono. He even offered some advice for politicians in his south Asian neighbourhood: “They are so closed…they think everybody is out there to get you. They have to loosen up a little.”
He dismissed concerns that clean technology may not yet be commercially viable, though critics point to recent bankruptcies of companies like the US solar technology firm Solyndra, despite a $535-million loan guarantee from the US government. “Does the bankruptcy of a bank demonstrate that banking is not commercially viable? No, it reflects that they don’t have a cutting edge because they haven’t invested properly. Chinese companies and Indian companies are not going bankrupt.”
Ever since he came to power in 2008, Nasheed has used every available forum to highlight the possible existential threat to Maldives. His government granted extraordinary access to Shenk and his crew, and the result is a powerful film that not only showcases the natural beauty of Maldives, but also the political horse-trading at climate change talks.
But Nasheed believes he is getting through to India. “I think during the last two years, the Indian government has become very very receptive to our needs,” he said, also appreciating the fact that “however small we are, we’ve always been able to have conversations with Indian leaders as equals.” He sees a similar response from the Indian industry: “I think young corporate India is very receptive to my argument. They understand that here is an opportunity.”
Nasheed had words of praise for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with whom he said he talks regularly. “I don’t think environment and development are poles apart in his mind. I sometimes think a lot of what I’m trying to say comes from the conversations I’ve had with the Prime Minister.”
Another favourite politician is Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who until recently held the environment portfolio. Nasheed described him as a “very very close friend” and in typical candid fashion, remarked, “I don’t know what he’s going to do in rural…” But he recovers swiftly with a laugh: “But he is a rural man, isn’t he? I told him to get a cottage somewhere.”
