The ongoing climate emergency poses a very real and urgent existential threat to the Maldives. Climate vulnerabilities, from both slow and rapid onset events, pose a tremendous challenge to all sectors of the Maldivian economy including tourism, fisheries and agriculture. Therefore, the Government of the Maldives has developed and launched the climate-focused integrated financing strategy in March 2023 to address the most urgent development challenges that the country is facing.
Financing for climate action has remained a priority for the Maldives. The country has spent $96 million for climate change mitigation and adaptation from its state budget alone in 2022, which is over 30 times increase compared to a decade ago. However, this expenditure level is only a fraction of the total financing needs which are estimated to be more than USD 800 million.
The Climate Financing Strategy brings together 16 prioritised financing policy areas encompassing public and private financing areas. The key strategies are to reduce carbon emissions, incentivize clean energy sources, embed sustainability principles in financial decision making, protect the financial system from climate risks, scale up the Green Fund and other climate funds, and unlock private sector financing.
Maldives becomes the first SIDS country to develop and formally endorse a financing strategy using an INFF approach.
Maldives will establish a Climate Finance Hub within the Ministry of Finance to support the INFF implementation.
