Shahid welcomes focus on Human Dimension of Climate Change

05 December 2007
Report: Jaxu

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulla Shahid yesterday used a keynote address at a ceremony held at UN Building to launch the 2007/2008 Human Development Report(HDR) to welcome UNDP’s decision to focus on the human impacts of climate change.

The 2007/2008 Human Development Report, entitled “Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World” identifies climate change as “the defining human defining human issue of our generation”. “All development is ultimately about expanding human potential and enlarging human freedom” note the report; “it is about people developing the capabilities that empower them to make choices and to lead lives that they value. Climate change threatens to erode human freedoms and limit choice; it calls in to question the enlightenment principles that human progress will make the future look better than the past”.

Commenting on the report Minister Shahid said that in future it will come to be seen as “one of the most important ever contributions to climate change debate”. The Minister said the “Report leaves us in no doubt that climate change is the most fundamental threat to human homes, livelihoods, rights and lives of the 21 century”.

In terms of headline statistics the Report states that a 2degree centigrade global temperature rise could result in 600 million people in sub Saharan Africa starve to death. Minister Shahid noted a similar rise in temperature would represent the most serious human reversal development in our life time for small island states like Maldives.

Perhaps the most notable innovation in this year’s Report is the explicit focus on human rights implications of global climate change. According to the report climate change will represent an outrage to the conscious of mankind and systematic violation of the human rights of the world’s poor and of future generations.

This aspect is particularly timely given the recent Maldives initiative on Human Dimension of Global Climate Change. Minister Shahid said that he looked forward to working with UNDP and other international partners in advancing the cause and ensuring the voices of the most vulnerable communities do not go unheard.

UNDP publishes Human Development Report annually. The report was first published in 1990.