Maldives accumulated a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the climate domain. Through various initiatives the government attained a clear assessment of the challenges posed by climate change and also identified the measures needed to address these challenges. However, implementation has been lagging partly due to lack of linkages with national development plans and international financial instruments. The National Economic, Environment and Development Studies (NEEDS) for Climate Change project aims to identify the financing needs in order to implement adaptation and mitigation measures. It will also identify the linkages with financial and regulatory instruments that will support the implementation of these measures. The NEEDS initiative helps identifying how to finance the Maldivian vision and it will be critical in integrating climate change priorities into the eighth National Development Plan, which is scheduled to be developed in 2010. NEEDS relies on stakeholder consultations, existing policy documents and studies from the Maldives and international reference documents. Our main tasks were:
– Work towards a GHG emission baseline for 2009
– Priorities and costing of mitigation of climate change in the short, medium and long term
– Cross check development plans and climate change initiatives
– Identify financial and policy instruments for implementing selected climate change initiatives