On 12 October 2011 His Excellency, the Honourable Vice President of the Republic of Maldives, Dr Mohammed Waheed Hassan, realeased the book “Energy and Environmental Security: A Cooperative Approach In South Asia”, edited by the Consortium of South Asian Think Tanks (COSATT) and the Regional Programme SAARC of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in New Delhi at the Palace of the President of the Republic of Maldives in Male. The book is the third study of COSATT, a network of leading think tanks in South Asia which was founded by the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi, in 2008 and is since then supported by KAS. It is the result of a one-year consultation process within COSATT about the theme of the SAARC Summit 2010 “Towards a Happy and Green Asia”. Comprising six chapters about Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively and three regional-specific chapters, the aim of the book is to look thoroughly at the most crucial issues of energy and environmental security in South Asia and to give concrete recommendations prior to the upcoming 17th SAARC Summit, 10-11 November 2011, in Male. The recommendation will be presented in a policy briefing in all eight SAARC countries simultaneously on 9 Nevmebr 2011.

After a welcome note by Dr Chandran, Major General Dipankar Banerjee (retd), Founder of and Mentor at IPCS, gave a brief overview about COSATT and the process of developing the book. He concluded his speech by thanking the also present Special Envoy to the President of the Republic of the Maldives, Honourable Ambassador Ibrahim Hussain Zaki, for being a true inspiration for cooperation in South Asia and – as a former General Secreatry of SAARC – one of the earliest supporters to the idea behind the theme of the 17th SAARC Summit: “Building Bridges”. Ambassador Zaki emphasized that energy and environmental security are matters close to the heart of the Maldivians and that there is an urgent need for a much higher level of cooperation on that matter. Furthermore he uttered the strong hope that the recommendations of the book will be included in the upcoming SAARC Summit. Mr Zaki concluded by thanking COSATT for releasing the book in the Maldives.

The highlight of the event was the official release of the book “Energy and Environmental Security: A Cooperative Approach In South Asia” by His Excellency, the Vice President of the Republic of Maldives, Dr Waheed. After the festive realase of the book, His Excellency the Vice President held a keynote address about the challenges and opportunities for the Maldives in the face of climate change. He emphasized that energy and environmental security are more important for the Maldvies then for any other country in the world since they are most vital issues for the long-term survival of the archipelago. To tackle not only the environmental, but also the security and economic dimension of this development, the Maldivian government has thus decided to pursue a strict low-carbon development path. Their ambitious goal is to make the country carbon-neutral by 2020 by lessening the current dependence on fossil fuels (14 % of the GDP is spent for oil imports) through the exploration of the vast but yet untapped resources of solar, wind, wave and biomass energy. Currently, the Maldives are planning to cover 60% of their energy consumption only through solar and the remaining 40% through other renewable energies. For this it is a matter of utmost concern to the Maldives, His Ecxellency the Vice President Dr. Waheed featured the need for closer regional cooperation with the neighbouring states of the Maldives and even more within South Asia and SAARC. Moreover, since there is also a strong need for expertise in this relatively new field of green energy he called for more exchange with and within the political, economic and scientific community as well as with the civil society. To foster this exchange the government of the Maldives has recently launched a website (www.co2.org/maldives-forum) to initiate an open and transparent consultation process about the transition of the Maldives to carbon-neutrality. With respect to this idea, the Vice President then warmly thanked COSATT, IPCS and KAS for their contribution and concluded by adding that he is “heartened that civil society has taken such a lead”.

In their final statements, Dr Mallika Joseph, Director at IPCS, and Tomislav Delinic, Director of the Regional Programme SAARC of KAS, expressed their sincere thanks to the Vice President for his inspirational speech. Based on the example of regional cooperation within Europe, Mr Delinic remembered that although the way of regional integration may be long even the voice of the smallest countries are of great significance and thus always deserve to be heard. Dr Joseph finally concluded the event by stating that even though there are some issues dividing the SAARC countries it always seems more fruitful to focus on those bringing South Asia closer together. Energy and environmental security is most certainly one of them.

Honoured with the presence of two distinguished statesmen – the Vice President of the Republic of Maldives, Dr Waheed, and the Special Envoy to the President of the Republic of the Maldives, Honourable Ambassador Zaki – and being held in the host country of the 17th SAARC Summit the release of the book “Energy and Environmental Security: A Cooperative Approach In South Asia” was a great success. Being thoroughly covered by the media, the event gained a lot of public attention throughout the Maldives and may thus be able to deliver an important contribution to the dialogue on energy and environmental security. After all, within every challenge there lies an opportunity – for South Asia this may be a development path which takes into account the responsibility for energy and environmental security right from the beginning.

The book “Energy and Environmental Security: A Cooperative Approach In South Asia”, edited by Dr. D Suba Chandran, Director at IPCS, and Jayakumar Jeganaathan, Research Officer at IPCS, is available through the Regional Programme SAARC of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (info.saarc@kas.de) (For a short overview please click on the link above).