Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has warned that the world is set to sign a "global suicide pact" unless it agrees a deal in Copenhagen next month to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
"At the moment every country arrives at climate negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible," President Mohamed Nasheed said in Male. "This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide, Mr Nasheed said.
"We don't want a global suicide pact. We want a global survival pact."
More than 190 nations are to meet for UN talks in Copenhagen between December 7 and 18, aiming for a post-2012 accord to slash emissions from fossil fuels that trap solar heat and drive global warming.
But after nearly two years of haggling, deep rifts remain over apportioning emissions curbs between rich economies and fast-growing developing nations and on the accord's architecture and legal status.
Mr Nasheed opened a two-day forum for 11 countries considered the most vulnerable to climate change, urging them to go carbon neutral to show the rich world the way forward.
"A group of vulnerable, developing countries committed to carbon neutral development would send a loud message to the outside world," Mr Nasheed said, adding that they needed to make a commitment to carbon neutrality.
Mr Nasheed, 52, called the meeting of the world's least polluting smaller states, including Kiribati and Barbados, in a bid to hammer out a common stance ahead of the Copenhagen summit.
"If those with the least (pollution) start doing the most, what excuse can the rich have for continuing inaction?" he asked. "We know this is not an easy step to take, and that there might be dangers along the way.
"We want to shine a light, not loudly demand that others go first into the dark."
Being carbon neutral normally means reducing emissions of greenhouse gases where possible and offsetting or compensating for any others that cannot be eliminated.
Some 85 delegates took part in the conference at the Bandos island resort, a short boat ride from Male, the capital of the archipelago which is best known for its upmarket tourism.
Recently, the Maldives flagged off construction of a $200-million wind farm as part of its efforts to make the low-lying archipelago carbon neutral by 2020.
The facility on a small islet just north of the capital Male is expected to be completed within 20 months, an official said, adding that it would supply more than half the nation's electricity needs.
Mr Nasheed, whose cabinet met underwater last month in a stunt aimed at highlighting the Maldives' vulnerability to rising sea levels, said he wanted the country to be a showcase for renewable and clean energy. In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that an increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimetres would make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable by 2100.
More than 80 per cent of the tiny nation, famed as a tourist paradise because of its secluded beaches, coral reefs and white-sand beaches, is less than a metre above sea level. China, Britain, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia and the United States sent observers for the conference, called the Climate Vulnerable Forum, officials said.