LocationsClimate resilience
At the forefront
Being an archipelago low-lying coral atolls, the Maldives is among the most vulnerable to the predicted climate change and global warming. Around 80% of the islands are just around 1 meter above sea level. The country has less than 1% as land and over 99% is sea. It is expected to present a number of profound challenges to the Maldives, in particular sea level rise, irregular rainfall, temperature and extreme events. This compounds trends of increasing coastal erosion and pressure on scarce land resources, and increases the physical vulnerability of island populations, infrastructure and livelihood assets
Reducing vulnerabilities
Addressing climate change, disaster risk and environmental sustainability are critical areas for Maldives, as evidenced by the impact of 2004 tsunami, which damaged the economic and social infrastructure by an estimated 62 per cent of gross domestic product. The Country Office’s work in the area of climate resilience is guided by the overarching goal of ensuring that communities enjoy improved access to environmental services and are more capable of protecting the environment and reducing vulnerability and disaster risks with enhanced disaster management capacity.
