The Maldives is calling for an agreement at Copenhagen that will help reduce carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million. This would require a 40 per cent global reduction in green house gas emissions by 2020 from 1990 levels.

In March this year Nasheed announced that the Maldives would be the first country in the Maldives to go carbon neutral, and the Maldives would achieve the target by 2020.

Nasheed is a certified open water diver, while other ministers took diving lessons recent weeks.

After the dive, signed wet suits of the Nasheed and the ministers will be auctioned on www.protectmaldives.com.mv to raise funds for coral reef protection in the Maldives.

Experts warned that that an increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimeters would make the country virtually uninhabitable by 2100.

More than 80 percent of the tiny atoll nation, comprised of 1,192 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, is less than a meter above sea level.