THE Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country`s billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland — as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country`s first democratically elected president has said.

Mohamed Nasheed, who takes power officially today (Nov 11) in the island`s capital, Male, said the chain of 1,200 island and coral atolls dotted 500 miles (804km) from the tip of India is likely to disappear under the waves if the current pace of climate change continues to raise sea levels.

The UN forecasts that the seas are likely to rise by up to 59cm by 2100, due to global warming. Most parts of the Maldives are just 1.5metres above water. The president said even a “small rise” in sea levels would inundate large parts of the archipelago.

“We can do nothing to stop climate change on our own and so we have to buy land elsewhere. It`s an insurance policy for the worst possible outcome. After all, the Israelis [began by buying] land in Palestine,” said Nasheed, also known as Anni. The president, a human rights activist who swept to power in elections last month after ousting Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the man who once imprisoned him, said he had already broached the idea with a number of countries and found them to be “receptive”.

He said Sri Lanka and India were targets because they had similar cultures, cuisines and climates. Australia was also being considered because of the amount of unoccupied land available.

“We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades,” he said.

Environmentalists say the issue raises the question of what rights citizens have if their homeland no longer exists. “It`s an unprecedented wake-up call,” said Tom Picken, head of international climate change at Friends of the Earth.

The 41-year-old is a rising star in Asia, where he has been compared to Nelson Mandela. Before taking office the new president asked Maldivians to move forward without rancour or retribution — an astonishing call, given that Nasheed had gone to jail 23 times, been tortured and spent 18 months in solitary confinement.n

— The Guardian, London