It is my honour and privilege to once again join and address the General Assembly. On behalf of my Government and my people, I congratulate the President of the Assembly, as well as the Government and the people of Hungary, on his election and wish him the very best.
The presidency’s theme of an integrated agenda for peace, prosperity and sustainability through multilateralism is very much needed today. We must build on the good foundations that preceding Presidents and all of us have laid going forward, given the turmoil, uncertainty, mistrust, pain and suffering resulting from multiple crises, including the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the worsening climate crisis, the escalating socioeconomic challenges and the conflicts tearing us apart.
Let us transform words into actions. That must be underpinned by our collective commitments; supportive resources that are affordable, accessible and timely; and enhanced opportunities that will assist us all in providing for our peoples’ basic needs, while restoring their trust and confidence in all our Governments and healing our lands and ecosystems to deliver the future we want, as envisioned in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and many of our own development aspirations.
Let me pay tribute to the previous President, a fellow representative of a small island developing State, Mr. Abdulla Shahid of Maldives, for his outstanding presidency of hope, which renewed our collective resolve to turn the tide against the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and other evolving challenges. We wish him all the very best.
May I also convey my delegation’s gratitude to the Secretary-General for his continued strong leadership and untiring efforts in rallying the world to save ourselves and provide a much better, safer and more secure future for all, including, most important, for succeeding generations.
The candid yet sobering report of the Secretary- General (A/77/1) on the work of the Organization that he presented today (see A/77/PV.4) is deeply troubling. The clarion call of the Secretary-General must not go unheeded. We must all do our part and act decisively now for our collective good; otherwise, the alternative is to condemn ourselves to a future of doom and gloom. Is that what our children deserve?
It is with that in mind that Papua New Guinea supports the Secretary-General’s narrative in Our Common Agenda (A/75/982). We welcome the preliminary progress made towards better understanding the range of defining issues and how we address that effectively to help deliver on the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to improve our peoples’ lives and livelihoods while also better protecting our common environment.
In that connection, we applaud the Secretary- General for convening the Transforming Education Summit. We are pleased to note the shared recognition of education as a cornerstone of a prosperous, stable and secure future for all. I know that an educated
society is an informed society that stands to make better decisions.
Education is a key priority for my country and is guided by our education policy to leave no child behind, supported by our Education Sector Development Plan 2023-2027. It is a holistic and inclusive approach to ensuring a focus on a quality life-long education for all, with special attention given to the most vulnerable and marginalized population, while recognizing the importance of multi-stakeholder participation in the pursuit of education.
One demonstration of that strong commitment to education is my Government’s decision to provide free education for all, up to grade 12 and continuing into tertiary-level education, as well as to provide opportunities for children, young people and adults, through flexible, open and distance education and community colleges, to scale up their capacity to be entrepreneurs and nation-builders.
We also welcome the consensus reached on the Summit of the Future, to be held in September 2024, which aims to find solutions to the multiple crises we face on Earth. However, that should not be defined by the lowest common denominator but, in my view, must be more ambitious, yet realistic and workable. We remain committed to engage in that process because it provides an opportunity for us to also draw parallels with our national efforts to attain Papua New Guinea’s Vision 2050.
I am pleased to inform the Assembly that the COVID-19 pandemic and the other stresses we face as a nation, including supply chain difficulties and development financing challenges, have spurred my Government to embark on our own national process similar to the Secretary-General’s global efforts under Our Common Agenda.
We have taken stock of our own domestic development challenges and have put in place key policies and legislative measures, including reforms of important sectors and development priorities, tying them to our budget cycle under the medium-term development plan. That path, if we follow it, will make Papua New Guinea a middle-income country by 2050, in line with the aspirations of our nation’s Vision 2050.
I report to the United Nations that the core focus of my Government for the next five years — since we received a mandate in the recently concluded democratic election process — will be to build a resilient and diversified economy; invest in high-quality economic and social infrastructure; ensure fair and equitable natural resource development; address business and investment confidence; strengthen the rule of law and domestic security; deliver quality education and health to all our people; and, last but not least, to strengthen the institutions of State, including governance, on key issues such as corruption and everything that is fundamental to developing nations. Those are the fundamental building blocks of my country, which should contribute towards the achievement of peace, prosperity and sustainable development.
As Papua New Guinea approaches the fiftieth anniversary of its independence in three years, my Government has also prioritized the industrialization of our economy through import substitution, value-adding and downstream processing of our vast natural resources through the use of modern green technology that will not compromise my country’s rich biodiversity and our pristine natural environment.
Papua New Guinea is documented to have about 5 to 6 per cent of world’s biodiversity and our huge tropical rainforest is third in size only to that of the Congo and the Amazon. We therefore welcome genuine and appropriate foreign investors to partner with us on various sectors of our renewable resource development, and I assure them of fair, equitable and secure returns on their investments.
While we note the global community’s calls for domestic revenue sources to be expanded and better harnessed for development financing, we also recognize that the existing global economic and financial architecture is weighted against developing countries such as Papua New Guinea. That structure needs to be changed to better support all developing nations in their development needs. Let us not forget that small developing countries often bear the brunt of global economic and social woes that they have no hand in engendering.
In that spirit, I join the calls of fellow small island developing States for their development financing needs to be measured based on the environmental, economic and social dimensions of their vulnerability rather than based on their gross national income measure alone, which is no longer a suitable approach. Accordingly, we urge the international community to support the proposed multidimensional vulnerability index for small island developing States as a tool to support such States through concessional financing and debt relief,
given their special circumstances amid the increasing challenges that they continue to face in meeting their development needs, including food security, as alluded to by the Secretary-General.
Today many parts of the world face food insecurity, hunger and poverty, which Papua New Guinea can contribute to alleviating. In response to the Secretary- General’s concerns about global food security, I would like to recall that Papua New Guinea’s 8 million people live on a land mass of 464,840 square kilometres, and that our country has rain and water in abundance, while our seas are equally a food source. For instance, we supply tuna to Asia and Europe. Compared to, for instance, the United Kingdom of Great Britain’s 243,610 square kilometres, Japan’s 377, 975 square kilometres or our neighbour the Philippines’ 300,000 square kilometres, Papua New Guinea has enough land, sea and people to be a food supplier to the world.
For the first time in our country, my Government has exerted efforts to address that imminent problem by placing more emphasis on the agricultural sector, which is viewed not only as a revenue source for our economy but also as a conduit to empower the majority of our rural communities, through the introduction of innovative farming methods in cash-crop production, livestock and poultry, in order to allow those communities to take ownership and leadership of their development needs and livelihoods and at the same time foster poverty alleviation and food security.
It is from that perspective that we have established new ministerial portfolios for oil palm, coffee and livestock to assist us not only in catering better to the needs of the majority of our rural communities and integrating their local economies into the national and global markets but also in improving lives and livelihoods so that they can be a source of food security and hunger and poverty alleviation for both our country and other countries. We therefore welcome new international development partners that wish to work with us in the agricultural sector, particularly on the downstream processing of products, which adds value and supports local communities and our country.
As the world prepares for the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and despite the rallying efforts of the global community, including through pledges to cut emission levels under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the world remains on fire.
That is further compounded by destructive floods and rising sea levels — allow me to convey Papua New Guinea’s sympathies to the victims of the recent flood in Pakistan — which affect our coastal communities, including through displacement and loss of identity as a people, both in my own country and across the Pacific region and beyond, as carbon emission levels continue their destructive spiral out of control. We cannot and must not allow that to continue.
I reiterate the call I made last year in this Hall (see A/76/PV.13). My country, with one of the largest standing pristine tropical rainforests in the world, is one of the few carbon-positive countries in the world. We remove more carbon than we emit. Over the past five years or so, we have reduced national forest emissions by 53 per cent, for a total of more than 75 million tons of United Nations-verified Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) credits, which will be on the market by the end of this year. My Government has updated the Climate Management Act and this year put in place a nationally determined contribution regulation.
We now have the legislation in place needed to implement the Paris Agreement. We have also endorsed our nationally determined contributions implementation plan and road maps on electricity, agriculture, forestry and other land use. We are also drafting our first electric vehicle policy and working towards endorsing our national adaptation plan.
However, it is disheartening for small countries like Papua New Guinea that do not have a big carbon footprint to note that, despite our proactive national efforts to implement our commitments under the Paris Agreement, we seem to always get the raw end of the deal. We have done our part, yet we have had little support from the global North, including for our submissions to the Green Climate Fund. But we have not lost all hope, even though REDD+ and forest nations were almost forgotten in the conversations held recently in Glasgow.
We will no longer be placated by toothless pledges. We need the power of sovereign carbon markets that fully comply with the Paris Agreement. The world cannot talk about climate change without talking about forest conservation and proper land-use management. Papua New Guinea calls for an urgent global focus to be placed on the conservation, preservation and sustainability of our global forests, including proper land-use practices, because it is only in our dear trees
in the forests that one finds the dual benefit of carbon cleansing and oxygen production.
I had the privilege of meeting His Majesty King Charles III, and the views on forests that he shared with me are the same as those I have mentioned here today, including the view that the world, especially countries whose carbon footprints on Mother Earth are the greatest, must help preserve the Earth’s forests in a manner commensurate with each country’s emission levels.
That is incumbent upon all nations. We must preserve our forests. It is Papua New Guinea’s humble view that the atmospheric balance of oxygen and carbon should be prioritized as the number one focus of all humankind because therein lies the sustenance of life and the dear trees in our forests play a balancing role as created by the Creator God. The world must save its forests; not to do so will be suicide for the Earth’s future. We are leaving a gloomy future for our children.
That is something we must correct at the twenty- seventh Conference of the Parties, to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh. Let us not forget that there is more carbon stored in the world’s forests than in all known coal, oil and gas reserves. In short, if we lose our rainforests, climate stability is impossible; we may as well kiss goodbye the temperature goal of 1.5C warming. We and other rainforest nations are trying our best to balance the harvesting of our forests for our development needs with conserving them for the world. We need help with that. The Assembly must hear us. Our planet is fragile and time is short, but together we can do this, and not to do so would be to the detriment of planet Earth.
Finally, given the increasing adverse impact of climate change on our communities, I would like to reiterate Papua New Guinea’s strong support for the initiative of our Melanesian neighbour, Vanuatu, to seek an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on that existential threat. We invite others to join Pacific, Caribbean and other partners in taking that initiative forward at the General Assembly for our common good.
With regard to the ocean agenda, I reaffirm that Papua New Guinea, as a maritime nation, is strongly committed to ensuring that our maritime zones remain safe, secure and peaceful in the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Our maritime zone not only provides us with economic opportunities, including through our fisheries resources, but also symbolizes our ties with the ocean over many centuries.
Along with other small island developing States and least developed countries, Papua New Guinea calls on developed nations to assist us in accessing appropriate capacity-building resources, research, science, technology and financing to strengthen our national efforts to better protect our oceans and harness the ocean-based economy. Accordingly, we welcome public-private partnerships.
With regard to SDG 14, it was pleasing to note the success of the second Ocean Conference. We are encouraged by the welcome offer of France and Costa Rica to co-host the next Conference and look forward to working with like-minded countries to take forward that initiative. Such partnerships on the ocean agenda are most welcome.
I would also like to applaud the sterling efforts made\ under the leadership and presidency of Singapore in last month’s negotiations on a new implementing instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, to which as a marine nation we offer our full support.
A resounding call that we continue to hear loudly, clearly and repeatedly — and rightly so — is the importance of empowering young people to be at the table as real partners in national development when decisions are being made about their lives and livelihoods. That is indeed long overdue and must be brought to fruition without further delay. In recognition of the ever-increasing youth bulge in my country and the challenges that young people continue to face, youth issues are now front and centre of my Government’s development priorities for nation-building.
We are rolling out cadetship programmes as a tool for capacity-building and training that will equip young people to be owners, drivers, leaders and entrepreneurs in building our nation. We are also using our education system as a lever to foster integral human development for all our young people. We welcome development partners to join us in that transformative endeavour.
It was in that spirit that Papua New Guinea was pleased to be a main sponsor and strong supporter of the establishment of the Youth Office in the United Nations Secretariat. It was also pleasing to note the consensus on that issue. While we recognize that much more work remains to be done, we look forward to harnessing the
United Nations Youth Office, once it is operationalized, to support our national efforts on the youth agenda. The potential of our young people was well recognized by Deputy Secretary-General Ms. Amina Mohammed and the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Youth Employment during their ground-breaking visit to my country in March 2020, which was a testament to that partnership.
Gender equality and empowerment, including combating gender-based violence, remains a top priority for my Government. We have established a bipartisan parliamentary committee that has carried out extensive public consultations, and the recommendations made to the previous Parliament will be taken up by the current Parliament in a serious way in order to better address the protection of our women and girls and give them fair and just opportunities to reach their full potential.
We have also put in place legislation and policies to address concerns related to gender equality and empowerment and combat gender-based violence. In addition, we are pleased that two well-qualified women were newly elected to the eleventh Parliament — an improvement on the last Parliament, in which there were no women parliamentarians. I have recognized their capabilities and professionalism and have tasked them with specific responsibilities for the country. We will continue to work hard to include more women representatives in decision-making bodies as equal development partners.
I would like to join the call for global peace and stability. The simmering tensions and mistrust that are the nemesis of peace cannot and must not be allowed to fester any longer. We, as members of this Organization, took it upon ourselves to uphold the Charter of the United Nations. It is therefore incumbent on all of us to ensure that we are seen to uphold our commitments to the Charter. In the context of the ongoing Bougainville peace process, I want to assure this forum that that important issue remains a top priority in Papua New Guinea. Peace by peaceful means underpins that national priority, and I would like to note that we are on the road to establishing a political solution for Bougainville.
We have a road map that continues to serve as a blueprint, and we will consider all issues under the existing parameters of our Constitution for a lasting, peaceful political solution that is acceptable to all Papua New Guineans as far as Bougainville is concerned. We would like to thank United Nations for its role in Papua New Guinea and the Melanesian conflict resolution model, which can be replicated in other countries facing political conflict.
With regard to Security Council reform, making that organ relevant to today’s realities is a task to which we must attend. We note the incremental progress that continues to be made in the intergovernmental process. However, let me reiterate our call to expedite the long- drawn-out process by ensuring that we have a negotiated document that can serve as a basis for moving forward.
May I also take this opportunity to recognize the milestone achievement made earlier this year, whereby the General Assembly held Security Council members responsible for their decisions on peace and security. We welcomed and supported the emergency special session measures taken by the General Assembly with respect to the situation in Ukraine in order to ensure that the Security Council is held accountable for its actions. The success that arose from that process is a small but nonetheless significant step illustrating why reform of the Security Council is necessary and cannot be delayed further.
Last but not least, may I take this opportunity to pay homage to the memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who by the grace of God and Lord Jesus was Papua New Guinea’s Head of State for 47 years. Our beloved Queen personified grace, dignity, honesty, humility, tolerance of others, forgiveness and all other Christian virtues and lived a consistent, unfailing life of public service for 70 years — some lessons we leaders of the world must learn to practice.
On behalf of Papua New Guinea, I pay my respects to Mama Kwin, as we affectionately called her. May her soul rest in peace with her maker, Jesus. We convey our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to His Majesty King Charles III and his royal family, the people and the Government of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth family.
Let me conclude by thanking the President for giving me the opportunity to speak again on a very appropriate contemporary theme and our shared global need, and by thanking the United Nations for once again being a wonderful host at this milestone seventy- seventh session of the Assembly. May God bless the United Nations.