October 7, 2010Maldives President Installs Solar Roof

President Mohamed Nasheed of Maldives, a sun-baked nation of 1,200 low islands south of India, donned jeans and a hard hat earlier today and helped install 48 donated solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of his official residence in the crowded capital, Male (the photo below, taken by Mohamed Ali, is from the government Flickr.com photo stream). Just last year Nasheed donned scuba gear for an underwater cabinet meeting ahead of climate talks in Copenhagen.

According to the president’s office and Sungevity, the American company that designed the installation, the panels, from LG Electronics, will save $300,000 in avoided conventional electricity costs and avoid 195 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the life of the system. Will President Obama don the presidential hard hat next spring when the White House installs its hot water and photovoltaic panels?

Maldivian leaders have long been out front on climate, and, in the case of Nasheed, on non-polluting energy choices, mainly because the nation, with hardly any land more than eight feet above sea level, is particularly vulnerable should seas rise several feet by the end of the century.

I first got a sense of their concern in 1988, while in Toronto reporting on a pivotal climate conference — a meeting that in many ways set the stage for negotiations toward the first climate treaty. There’s a scene in my 1992 book, “ Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast,” that describes that moment:

Perhaps the most straightforward projections of what a greenhouse future will bring in coming decades are those related to rising seas. A foot and a half rise [one of the projections at the time] doesn’t sound like much — unless you live in a place that just barely pokes above the ocean. I learned this when I went to Toronto to report on the First International Conference on the Changing Atmosphere. Most of the discussions centered on devising strategies to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from automobiles, power plants, and the burning of tropical forests. Among those in attendance was Hussein Manikfan, who holds the title Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative to the United Nations from the republic of Maldives.

At first it seemed odd to find a representative from the Maldives at the meeting. The country, a sprinkling of 1,190 coral islets in the Indian Ocean southwest of Sri Lanka, has no tropical forests, hardly any automobiles, and little industry beyond the canning of bonito. I spoke awhile with Manikfan. Why was he in Toronto? “To find out how much longer my country will exist,” was his simple reply.

You’ll undoubtedly hear from some folks who question whether Maldives is threatened by rising seas by pointing to scientific controversies over recent sea-level trends in the Indian Ocean, so I’ll put up a link to relevant published literature on Google Scholar here. There’s little question, however, that a meter or more of rise (not necessarily probable, but entirely plausible) would pose big challenges in such island nations.

In a statement released today, Nasheed explained his action, which is an advance “work party” ahead of a big international day of climate action Sunday:

The Maldives stands at the front line of climate change and we don’t have the luxury of time to sit and wait for the rest of the world to act. We are getting to work to start the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Given that the world’s industrial and industrializing giants are slow to follow suit, it would be wise for Maldivian leaders and developers to keep track of other options for living resiliently in a world with rising temperatures and waters. Floating resorts, anyone?