When the United Nations was
founded nearly 70 years ago, it was created to fulfil the
aspiration that peace and diplomacy could overcome
self-interest and to ensure that, through effective
cooperation, the world could avoid grave security
threats. But the decades since the signing of the Charter
of the United Nations have been marked by nearly as
many failures as successes, and many of those failures
could have been prevented by early action and stronger
political will.
I am particularly concerned today about the recent
events in Ukraine and the rapid spread of violent
terrorism in Syria and Iraq, even though the Pacific
Islands sit halfway around the world, a fragile region
far away from the global super-Powers. The leaders of
nations have in our hands the means either to respond
with alert action or to turn our backs on a growing
danger.
Climate change poses no less of a security threat
to our Pacific shores, and, indeed, to the world. As a
low-lying country, the Marshall Islands has no higher
ground — nowhere to go — and we will not cede an
inch to rising waters. Earlier this week, over 120 world
leaders met in this Hall to signal our political will
and our commitment. No one should take that lightly.
Leaders simply cannot afford to play consensus games
or to squabble.
Yet words and intentions alone do not meet the full
challenge before us. There will be serious emissions
gaps between what the world will do and what needs
to be done to save my nation. Earlier this week, young
poet and mother Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner from the Marshall
Islands stepped onto this very same stage to urge world
leaders to take action. Today, on behalf of the most
vulnerable nations — those at the front line — I ask of
the leaders of the largest nations, the major emitters, in
Kathy’s very same words, to
“take us all along on your ride. We will not slow
you down. We will help you win the most important
race of all, the race to save humanity”.
Like no other global challenge, climate change
requires direct political ownership and eye-to-eye
engagement with leaders. This issue, more than any
other, will define the Secretary-General’s legacy as
leader of these united nations. I urge him not only to
continue to show his commendable personal leadership,
but also to use his good offices to help find creative
political solutions.
Everyone — large and small, rich and poor — must
and will take strong action on emissions. In that regard,
the Republic of the Marshall Islands strongly supports
the Federated States of Micronesia, the United States
of America, and many other nations in urging a rapid
global phase-down of hydrofluorocarbon gases under
the Montreal Protocol. I will personally attend the Paris
climate conference next December, so that my voice
and that of my people can be heard.
Unlike many other fights, the huge global fight to
address climate change is also a personal one for me.
It starts in my own backyard, with my own seawall,
built with my own hands, to push back rising waters,
save my own future and the future of my children
and grandchildren. But that is not enough. We face a
challenge that is nearly beyond belief. As with so many
other moments in the history of the United Nations, we
have to ask whether leaders will respond to the climate
threat with courage. Or will some nations, including
some close friends of the Pacific Islands, slide back in
their efforts, bury their heads in the sand and ignore an
obvious climate reality? I hope and expect that at the
coming Group of Twenty meeting later this year, the
world’s largest economies will address climate change
and the economic consequences of inaction. The Pacific
island countries demand no less.
Last month, nations around the world gathered in
Apia for the third international conference on small
island developing States. As hosts of the conference,
the Government and people of Samoa showed the world
true Pacific hospitality. As we have for decades, Pacific
leaders have spoken firmly — in last year’s Majuro
Declaration for Climate Leadership, in this year’s Palau
Declaration on “The Ocean: Life and Future”, and again
in the Small Island Developing States Accelerated
Modalities of Action (SAMOA Pathway).
Our development needs are beyond urgent and
must not to be put off for yet another year. While
the SAMOA Pathway charts a course forward for
international partnership with small islands, there is
too often a mismatch between our national structures
and complicated sources of assistance. It is my hope
and expectation that the major announcements and
partnerships from the Samoa Summit will not lose
momentum because of poor connections in the
delivery channels. Our needs are often modest, but
the trickle-down of international assistance and
global development somehow fails to reach our local
communities and to meet our unique challenges.
In the follow-up to the Samoa meeting, starting
this year I urge the Secretary-General, the international
system and United Nations agencies to start thinking
seriously about how to work more effectively with
our unique challenges as island nations. As Member
States design a post-2015 development agenda, it is
important that we focus on a strong outcome that has
the flexibility to accommodate the unique character
of each nation. We cannot measure progress without
specific benchmarks, but as a small nation we fear that
having so many ambitions can be equivalent to having
none at all. The answer is not to be isolated within a
separate, unconnected island strategy, but rather to
build the flexibility needed for so many nations to act
as one.
I stand firm with my fellow Pacific leaders and
nations around the world who have urged that there
be a United Nations sustainable development goal on
oceans. I am puzzled as to why some nations close their
eyes to two thirds of the world’s surface, pretending
that the world’s vast blue waters somehow do not exist.
The Pacific Ocean and its rich fisheries are our lifeline.
We are the custodians of our own vast resources on
behalf of future generations.
We could introduce a step change in the world’s
sustainable fisheries and play our own role to address
global food security. Distant-water fishing nations must
engage us as true development partners and work with
us to change the focus beyond their immediate national
industry and towards a global responsibility. Recent
progress on sustainable fisheries has become the
defining story of the Pacific — it is our empowerment
and our future. The oceans are an equally valuable
resource for alternate sustainable energy, including
ocean thermal energy conversion.
Everyone should participate on the international
stage. The Republic of the Marshall Islands supports
Taiwan’s meaningful participation in United Nations
specialized agencies and mechanisms, including
the World Health Organization, the International
Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well
as in key regional economic integration mechanisms.
Furthermore, I call for Taiwan’s involvement in the
post-2015 development agenda and urge recognition
of the important assistance provided to my country
in health, education and energy. The Marshall Islands
welcomes Taiwan’s efforts to reduce cross-Strait
tensions and urges States Members of the United
Nations to recognize and encourage such progress.
As a former United Nations Trust Territory, the
Republic of the Marshall Islands has a unique legacy,
shared by only a very few in this Hall. It was the United
Nations that helped set us on a path to independence, but
it was also the United Nations that explicitly authorized
the 67 nuclear tests conducted in our nation between
1946 and 1958. Our own history bears the burden and
the contemporary impacts of those tests. Our suffering
could have been prevented by the United Nations — if
only its Members had listened. Like many other nations,
the Republic of the Marshall Islands believes that
awareness of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear
weapons must underpin all approaches and efforts
towards nuclear disarmament.
Those facts speak for themselves and were
recognized two years ago by the United Nations Special
Rapporteur. We look forward to addressing those issues
further during our participation in the Human Rights
Council universal periodic review next year. For the
survival of humanity it is essential that nuclear weapons
are never used again, under any circumstances. The
universal way to accomplish that is through the total
elimination of such weapons. It should be our collective
goal as the United Nations to not only stop the spread
of nuclear weapons, but also to pursue the peace and
security of a world without them.
This year, I look forward to a United Nations that
better recognizes the true global challenges of today
and moves beyond old political cobwebs into our
dynamic century.