Time is running out for the Maldives – as not one but three existential dangers threaten its survival
The Maldives is fighting for its very survival.
As an archipelago of low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean, it faces not one but three existential dangers, all driven by climate change.
The rising sea levels threaten to submerge some of the islands with some scientists warning this disaster could happen within the next decade.
Extreme weather is causing coastal erosion to happen more quickly
The under-pressure islands also face another threat. Seasonal weather patterns have become severely disrupted.
Monsoons and tropical storms are more frequent and more violent. They are exaggerating natural coastal erosion and making it happen much more quickly.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
This is everything you need to know about COP26
It means the islands are literally shrinking. But one of the most pressing emergencies is the drastic loss of the atoll coral.
Rising sea temperatures are killing the coral reefs and that is having a devastating impact on life, both on land and sea.
The reefs are crucial to the island’s survival, not only are they an essential part of the entire marine ecosystem but they provide protection for the coastline.
Azim Musthag is a marine scientist at the Small Island Research Group based in the Maldives’ capital – Male.
He has been measuring the health of the archipelago’s coral reef and his findings are troubling.
Azim Musthag says most of the coral reefs are dead or aren’t recovering quickly enough
“It is quite serious,” he said. “The reefs aren’t recovering as fast as we would like.
“A large proportion of the reefs are still dead or they are recovering too slowly and this is bad for a nation like the Maldives.
“The coral reef is the basis of life here. We are a country in the middle of the Indian Ocean and there are no other sources of nutrients around the reef, it’s the home for nearly all of our marine life.”
Mr Musthag has no doubt what is killing the coral. He said: “Sea temperatures related to climate change are definitely the main cause of such destruction.”
The warnings over the impact of climate change on the Maldives have been sounded for years.
Coastal erosion is one of the issues
Mr Mushtag added that it is time for action, saying: “We need to commit to reducing the amount of greenhouse gases, actually we need to bring it below zero.
“We need to find ways to put carbon back into the earth and invest in or restore low-carbon ecosystems like mangroves, seagrass meadows, and natural forests.
“We don’t have that many years ahead of us. We need to take action really fast and I don’t think the major countries, the major players, are doing much about it. It’s not as fast as we would like.”
As our planet heats up the sea level rises and data for the Maldives shows a 3-4mm increase in the last year alone.
That means these low-lying islands could be completely submerged within the next decade, but there is another, perhaps, even more, urgent crisis: coastal erosion.
The Minister of State for Environment, Dr Abdulla Naseer, is worried that people may be forced to move to a different island
Dr Abdullah Naseer, the country’s Minister of State for Environment, is a coastal marine scientist who has been gathering data from across the islands.
“We are very worried about it,” he said, stressing they need to find a solution for the people living on these islands.
“There are 186 inhabited islands and each and every one, almost 90% of them now, complain that the islands have been eroding away and to help them out in some way.
“So we are spending more than necessary on coastal protection. We have to find alternative sources of funding for coastal protection and also to find solutions to the current rate of erosion.”
Subscribe to ClimateCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Spreaker
If a solution is not found soon then the Maldivian government may be forced to take extreme measures like forced evacuations.
Dr Naseer added: “We are concerned that we may have to move people around, you know, consolidate people to a different island.”
The red flags about the future of these islands have been ignored for too long. Time for the Maldives is running out.
For full coverage of COP26 watch Climate Live on Sky channel 525.
Follow live coverage on web and app with our dedicated live blog.
Get all the latest stories, special reports and in depth analysis at skynews.com/cop26
A famine has been declared in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition – has confirmed just four famines since it was established in 2004.
These were in Somalia in 2011, and in Sudan in 2017, 2020, and 2024.
The confirmation of famine in Gaza City is the IPC’s first outside of Africa.
“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the report said, adding that more than a million other people face a severe level of food insecurity.
Israel Gaza map
Over the next month conditions are also expected to worsen, with the famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the report said.
Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions while acute malnutrition is projected to continue getting worse rapidly.
Over the next year, the report said at least 132,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition – double the organisation’s estimates from May 2024.
Israel says no famine in Gaza
Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights chief, said the famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.
“It is a war crime to use starvation as method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing,” he said.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has rejected the findings.
Israel’s foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza: “Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets.”
Another UN chief made a desperate plea to Israel’s prime minister to declare a ceasefire in the wake of the famine announcement.
Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said famine could have been prevented in the strip if there hadn’t been a “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries.
“My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him. Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them,” he said.
The IPC had previously warned famine was imminent in parts of Gaza, but had stopped short of a formal declaration.
Palestinians struggle to get aid at a community kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July.
The latest numbers from the Gaza health ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children.
But Israel has previously accused Hamas of inflating these figures, saying that most of the children who died had pre-existing health conditions.
The Ukrainian suspected of coordinating attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines had served in Ukraine’s Secret Service and in the Ukrainian Army’s special forces, Sky News understand.
Serhii K., 49, was arrested in northern Italy on Thursday following the issuance of a European arrest warrant by German prosecutors.
It is not known whether he was still serving at the time of the pipeline attack in 2022 and Ukraine’s government has always denied any involvement in the explosions.
According to sources close to the case, the suspect has been found in a three-star bungalow hotel named La Pescaccia in San Clemente, in the province of Rimini.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Man arrested over Nord Stream attacks
When military officers from Italy’s Carabinieri investigative and operational units raided his bedroom, he didn’t try to resist the arrest.
The hotel’s employees have been questioned, but no further evidence or any weapons were found, the sources added.
Serhii arrived on Italy’s Adriatic coast earlier this week, and the purpose of his trip was a holiday. He was found with his two children and his wife.
At least one of the four people within his family had a travel ticket issued in Poland. He crossed the Italian border with his car with a Ukrainian license plate last Tuesday.
He was travelling with his passport, and he used his real identity to check into the hotel, triggering an emergency alert on a police server, we have been told.
A satellite image shows gas from the Nord Stream pipeline bubbling up in the Baltic Sea. File pic: Roscosmos via Reuters
After the arrest, he was taken to the Rimini police station before being moved to a prison in Bologna, the regional capital, on Friday.
Deputy Bologna Prosecutor Licia Scagliarini has granted the German judicial authorities’ requests for Serhii’s surrender, but Sky News understands the man told the appeal court that he doesn’t consent to being handed over to Germany.
He also denied the charges and said he was in Ukraine during the Nord Stream sabotage. He added that he is currently in Italy for family reasons.
While leaving the court, he was seen making a typical Ukrainian nationalist ‘trident’ gesture to the reporters.
The next hearing is scheduled for 3 September, when the Bologna appeal court is set to decide whether Serhii will be extradited to Germany or not. He will remain in jail until then.
In Germany, he will face charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and the destruction of structures.
German prosecutors believe he was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.
Serhii and his accomplices are believed to have set off from Rostock on Germany’s north-eastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack.
Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: Russia has made Trump look weak
Captured ISIS fighter speaks from death row
The explosions severely damaged three pipelines transporting gas from Russia to Europe. It represented a significant escalation in the Ukraine conflict and worsening of the continent’s energy supply crisis.
According to a US intelligence report leaked in 2023, a pro-Ukraine group was behind the attack. Yet, no group has ever claimed responsibility.
Spare pipes for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. File pic: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer
Sky News understands Genoa’s Prosecutor’s Office in northern Italy has requested their colleagues in Bologna to share the information related to Serhii.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors are investigating another alleged sabotage linked to the Russian shadow fleet oil tanker Seajewel, which sank off the port of Savona last February.
On Thursday, they asked an investigative police unit to figure out whether there is a link between that episode and the Nord Stream attacks.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment3 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike