Climate ambassador captures the stage
COPENHAGEN, 7 December 2009 – Hundreds of COP15 participants listened as newly minted Climate Ambassador Axam
Maumoon, 15, Maldives, captured the stage during a conference with prominent co-panelists as Danish Prime Minister
and host of COP15 Lars Lokke Rasmussen and CEO Jose Maria Figueres, Concordia21.
© UNICEF /2009/ Becker-Jostes
Axam Maumoon, young climate
ambassador from Maldives, spoke
today at the United Nations
Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen
“The voices, the concerns and the pain of all the children of the world ring true in my heart. My eyes go moist, not when
I see a movie, not when I loose a football game, certainly not when I give away my toys, but because I understand how
it feels to see my future and be forced to let it go,” Mahmoud began his talk.
Speaking about living in an era of climate injustice, the young climate ambassador pointed out that “Those with more
than enough are damaging our world blindly in the common cause of development, while those with nothing suffer to the
point at which we just cannot see the end of it.”
© UNICEF /2009/ Donovan
Left to Right, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Danish
Prime Minister and Axam Maumoon, young
climate ambassador from Maldives during the
United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen
Maumoon is one of eight climate ambassadors selected after last week’s Children’s Climate Forum to represent the youth
at the COP15.
He was the last speaker and the only one except for Lars Lokke Rasmussen using the podium. “This is how I practiced,”
he said. “Since the future is for our children, you must first think about this: how old will your children be in 2050? Or will
they be lucky to survive this dying earth? We are late, but not too late. Trust me; the best time to act is now. Thank you,
I am Mohamed Axam Maumoon from the Maldives, representing and carrying all the voices of all the children of the
world, including your own.”
Maumoon’s talk ended wit