The Maldives Environment Minister has issued a stark warning that climate change is a “death sentence” for the Indian Island nation and other small island states if global warming rises beyond the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold set by the international community in 2015.

Shauna Aminath was speaking as a multinational science team from the UK-based Nekton Mission and their Maldivian counterparts embarks on a 35-day expedition to assess the health of the seas surrounding what is the world’s lowest lying country.