Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Activists welcomed a resolution on climate change passed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Friday, expecting it to put pressure on the government to improve its efforts in dealing with the impacts of global warming.

"It is a serious warning for our government to take concrete action to address the climate change issue seriously. Otherwise, we may get a bad record for human rights issues," Fitrian Ardiansyah, director of the WWF-Indonesia on climate change, said Saturday.

"The resolution is also a positive move to force rich countries like the United States, which has intensively promoted human rights issues, to care more about climate change."

The resolution, submitted by the Maldives and passed without vote, states climate change violates human rights and that global action is required to solve the problem. It also says the poor tend to have limited resources in coping with the impacts of global warming. The Maldives, which consist of 1,200 islands, has long voiced fears of being submerged by rising sea-levels.

Climate change has occupied the top spot for environmental issues since UN climate experts released a finding that predicted severe impacts of global warming, including a rise in sea-levels of up to 59 centimeters by 2100 due to an increase in global temperatures.

The Indonesian government has said the 13,000 islands archipelago, which experiences an annual 0.8 centimeter rise in sea-levels, is very susceptible to such changes, and has cited coastline communities as particularly vulnerable.

The office of the state minister for the environment predicts a meter rise in sea-levels could swamp 405,000 hectares of the coastal areas and 2,000 small islands across the archipelago. Fitrian said many Indonesians would suffer the impact of such a disaster.

"Therefore, in light of the UN resolution, the government can no longer merely blame nature for disasters, including the recent floods which currently afflict the country," he said. "The government, as policy maker, must be responsible for coping with these disasters because taking no action is the same as violating human rights."

Climate expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology Armi Susandi said the resolution would help governments of vulnerable nations protect their people. "With the resolution in place, Indonesia can ensure the international communities of its vulnerability and ask them for extra resources, including funds to tackle the climate change," he said.

Delegations from 189 countries are set to gather in Bangkok on Monday for a three-day conference on climate change, to discuss, among others, the Bali roadmap on climate change, and to determine emission cuts.