Maldives Calls for Sea-Level Finance and Protection of Statehood at UN

The Maldives has called for faster access to climate adaptation funding and international guarantees that rising seas will not undermine island countries’ statehood, maritime rights or membership of the United Nations.

Vice President Hussain Mohamed Latheef set out the position at a UN General Assembly high-level meeting on sea-level rise on 24 September. He proposed action on financing, legal certainty and the integration of climate resilience into national development.

In his statement to the meeting, Latheef said rising seas were already damaging infrastructure and livelihoods in the Maldives and other small island developing states. He identified tourism, fisheries and ecosystems among the areas affected.

The Vice President said adaptation finance needed to be predictable and easier to obtain, with grants and concessional support reaching vulnerable countries early enough to reduce damage. He also called for a dedicated mechanism to observe sea-level rise.

Maritime Rights and National Identity

Latheef argued that lawfully established baselines and maritime zones should remain stable despite changes to coastlines. He said sea-level rise should not put a country’s sovereignty, legal identity or UN membership into question.

These were positions advanced by the Maldives at the meeting. The speech did not announce a new treaty or a completed international agreement establishing those protections.

The President’s Office account of the address identifies legal certainty as one of the three priorities presented by the Vice President, alongside larger-scale adaptation finance and resilient development planning.

Latheef also said sea-level rise needed to be considered in the design of infrastructure, the planning of economies and measures to protect livelihoods. He told delegates that the Maldives was incorporating those measures into national planning through its third Nationally Determined Contribution, the country’s climate action submission.

He asked development partners to help expand investment in those measures. No new funding award or financial commitment to the Maldives was announced in the statement.

Decades of Island Advocacy

The Vice President recalled the Maldives’ early efforts to raise the issue at the General Assembly and the adoption of the Malé Declaration on Global Warming and Sea Level Rise in 1989.

His address linked that earlier island-state advocacy to the current request for financing and legal protections. The statement said resilience should be built into development itself, covering both physical infrastructure and the economic activities that depend on the islands and surrounding seas.