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Climate Vulnerable Forum
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The Climate Vulnerable Forum (blue = founding countries, green = other participating countries, orange = observer countries)
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| Membership | 11 founding countries, 22 other participating countries, 25 observer countries | |
| Leaders | ||
| - | Chair | Bangladesh (2011 - ) |
| - | Previous Chair | Kiribati (2010 - 2011) |
| - | Founding Chair | Maldives (2009 - 2010) |
| Establishment | ||
| - | Malé CVF Declaration | 10 November 2009 |
| Website mofa.gov.bd |
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The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is a global partnership of countries disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming as a result of heightened socio-economic and environmental vulnerabilities that actively seek a firm and urgent resolution to a current intensification of climate change, both domestically and internationally.
The CVF was formed as a means of amplifying accountability on industrialized nations for the harmful consequences of global climate change and to exert additional pressure for ambitious action to tackle the challenge, including through local steps by vulnerable countries. Political leaders involved in the CVF have been described as “using their status as those most vulnerable to climate change to punch far above their weight at the negotiating table”.[1] The CVF differs notably from other initiatives because founding governments agreed to national commitments for pursuing low-carbon development or carbon neutrality.[2]
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The CVF was founded at the initiative of the Maldives government just prior to the major United Nations Copenhagen Summit in late 2009, where it sought a heightened awareness and presence of the vulnerable.[3] Eleven governments from Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific representing some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change met near the Maldives capital of Malé in November 2009 and signed the CVF into force with a declaration that expressed alarm at the pace of change and damages taking hold as a result of global warming. The declaration referred to “an existential threat to our nations, our cultures and to our way of life”, that also “undermines the internationally-protected human rights of our people”.[4]
The initiative was among a group of countries that emit very small amounts of warming greenhouse gases, but pledged a commitment to lead the world into a low-carbon and ultimately carbon-neutral economy. The CVF nevertheless recognized the need for international support to achieve these objectives within vulnerable countries.[5] A number of vulnerable countries, among them key figures in the CVF, especially Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, subsequently captured significant media attention at the Copenhagen Summit and were involved in closed negotiations there with leaders of global powers, such as the US and China.[6][7][8] The CVF Declaration committed to achieve a concentration of no more than 350 parts-per-million of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere, and to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or below above pre-industrial levels, later adopted as a position also by the Alliance of Small Island States.[9] Antigua and Barbuda, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Marshall Islands and Samoa also subsequently followed the Maldives as developing countries committed to aggressive national low-carbon development if not carbon neutrality.[10]
The founding countries pledged to show moral leadership and commence greening their economies[11] by voluntarily committing to achieving carbon neutrality.[12] They called upon all countries to follow the moral leadership shown by the Maldives, the first country to pledge to achieve carbon neutrality. Maldives also made a mark in the public sphere by holding an Underwater Cabinet Meeting[13][14] on the dangers of sea level rise caused by global warming.
The Maldives was the first Chair of the CVF from 2009 to 2010.
Kiribati is the previous chair of the CVF (2010 to 2011).
During its leadership, Kiribati hosted the Tarawa Climate Change Conference, on November 9–11, 2010,[15] where the Ambo Declaration was signed by 12 countries: Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, the Republic of the Maldives, Cuba, Brazil, Fiji, Japan, China, the Marshall Islands, New Zealand and Australia.[16]
Bangladesh (2011 to 2012) is the current chair of the CVF.[17]
The government of Bangladesh hosted a ministerial meeting of the Climate Vulnerable Forum on November 13–14, 2011 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon were the keynote speakers of the Forum inauguration ceremony.
The Dhaka Declaration of the Climate Vulnerable Forum was adopted on 14 November 2011 by 19 climate vulnerable countries.
The founding governments of the CVF who signed its first declaration near Malé on Bandos Island are
Australia, China, Denmark, Democratic Republic of the Congo, European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States
| CVF Meetings | ||||
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| No | Date | Country | Host | Host leader |
| 1st | 10 November 2009 | Maldives | Malé | Mohamed Nasheed |
| 2nd | 9–11 November 2010 | Kiribati | Tarawa | Anote Tong |
| 3rd | 13–14 November 2011 | Bangladesh | Dhaka | Sheikh Hasina |
DARA (international organization), based in Madrid, has been providing institutional support to the Climate Vulnerable Forum.
The Climate Vulnerable Forum, along with DARA (international organization), published the Climate Vulnerability Monitor 2010: The State of the Climate Crisis in December 2010, a global study covering 184 countries of the short-term impacts of climate change in four key areas: health, weather disasters, habitat loss and economic stress.[18][19][20][21][22]