While London yet again delays a decision on building a single runway due to environmentalist court action, the Maldives are pressing ahead with plans to open four new airports this year. Yes, despite the UN environment official’s warning that “entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000”, the Maldives are still here…

Two new airports opened in the famously low lying country in 2019. Far from losing land to rising sea levels, the islands of Fundadhoo, Hoarafushi, and Maafinolhu are reclaiming 37 hectares land from the Indian Ocean to construct airports and two 1.2 kilometre runways. By the end of 2020, the Maldives will have opened six new airports in the last two years. The UK will be continuing its half-century of indecision…