Nations Threatened by Climate Change Call on Developed World to Give 1.5% of GDP

Leaders of 11 nations whose very existence is threatened by climate change called on the developed world today to set aside at least 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product to help them and other developing nations adapt.

They also urged world leaders meeting in Copenhagen next month to create a legal framework to protect what they fear will be a growing number of climate refugees.

"For us, climate change is no distant or abstract threat; but a clear and present danger to our survival," Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said at the first gathering of the newly-formed Climate Vulnerable Forum.

“We are not responsible for the hundreds of years of carbon emissions, which are cooking the planet. But the dangers climate change poses to our countries means that this crisis can no longer be considered somebody else’s problem.

"For all of us gathered here today, inaction is not an option."

The Maldives and other nations represented at the forum — Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Nepal, Rwanda, Tanzania and Vietnam — are already suffering the consequences in the form of rising sea levels, melting glaciers and droughts that put them among the most endangered nations on the planet.

Nasheed formed the Climate Vulnerable Forum to give those nations a voice.

"I make this pledge today: We will not die quietly," he said.

At their first meeting this week, the group signed a declaration to be presented at the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.

The declaration calls for developed countries to contribute 1.5 percent of their GDP annually by 2015 in the form of predictable, transparent grant-based financing. The financing agreement "should prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable countries, especially in the near term,” the members wrote.

The vulnerable nations also promise to assume a moral leadership role by immediately beginning to green their own economies toward a goal of carbon neutrality — and they urge everyone else to aim for carbon neutrality, as well. Last week, the Maldives announced plans for a wind farm to provide 40 percent of its electricity needs.

Their actions alone won't be enough to save all their people, though. The Carteret Islanders of Papua New Guinea have already had to evacuate. In all last year, an estimated 20 million people were at least temporarily displaced by climate-related natural disasters, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

To help these displaced people, the declaration calls for support for climate refugees, protection of human rights and preservation of national sovereignty as climate change worsens.