<i>Maldives presses for action, not words </i>

In this photograph taken on Sept 8, local village official Mohamed Usman points to a boat anchored off shore where the beach stood a few months earlier before rapid coastal erosion at the north-central island village of Thulhaadhoo in the Indian Ocean atoll nation of the Maldives. The country which is better known as an exotic tourist destination is faced with a major economic crisis on top of negative effects of climate change and the government is following the renewable energy and recycling initiatives of private resorts. Photo: AFP

White sand and crystal clear water that laps around the Maldives draw thousands to the islands every year, but in the waves lie the seeds of the country's possible destruction.
The archipelago is on the frontline of climate change in a way that few other countries can claim and its unfortunate position has made it a vocal campaigner and, it hopes, a role-model in the battle against global warming.
In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that a rise in sea levels of 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches) by 2100 would be enough to make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable.
Over 80 percent of the country's land, composed of coral islands scattered some 850 kilometres (550 miles) across the equator, is less than one metre (3.3 feet) above mean sea level.
Ahead of a climate change summit in Copenhagen in December, where the world's powers hope to agree a new pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the country is preparing to make a loud case for hasty action.
"The best we can do is to tell the world that what is happening to us can happen to you tomorrow," says Maldives Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam. "The big countries must see their future reflected through us."