The island-nation’s President Mohammed Nasheed has said that the levy would, in effect, be an environmental tax.
Funds raised would go towards developments to help reduce the Maldives’ carbon emissions. Clear areas of interest would be energy provision, manufacture and transport.
The target would be for the Maldives to become a carbon-neutral nation within 10 years, added the President.
A daily tax of $3 per visitor has been mooted. Some 700,000 people visit the islands each year and, based on the average time that they spend on holiday there, it has been calculated that such a tax would raise more than $6 million a year.
National leaders from around the world are due to meet at the UN’s Environmental Summit in Copenhagen in December, to discuss ways in which major reductions in global carbon dioxide outputs might be achieved.
Related links
Maldives brings in protected areas (June 2009)
Maldives adopts blanket shark-fishing ban (March 2009)
Maldives prepares for the worst (November 2008)
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