I bring warm greetings from the
people of Kiribati, on whose behalf I am privileged to
once again address this Assembly.
I would like to take the opportunity to echo
the sentiments conveyed by previous speakers in
congratulating Ambassador John W. Ashe on assuming
the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-
eighth session. We are indeed very proud to have
a brother from the small island developing States
presiding over this session. I am confident that under
his able stewardship of the Assembly will continue its
work towards improving security and quality of life
for all members of our global community, in particular
the most vulnerable. Let me also take this opportunity
to express my appreciation for the leadership of his
predecessor, Mr Vuk Jeremi..
I also commend the untiring commitment and work
of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been an
able navigator on this journey, steering the United
Nations through the diverse and complex realities and
the myriad challenges facing our peoples and nations.
On behalf of the people of my country and our region,
I wish to reiterate our deep gratitude for his personal
commitment to the issue of climate change and the
plight of the most vulnerable. Our people still remember
with fondness the Secretary-General’s visit to Kiribati
in 2011, which was particularly significant in that it was
the first visit to our country and region by the head of
the United Nations. I am also heartened and humbled
to hear that his visit brought home to him the stark
realities of the challenges facing our people, living as
we are on the front line of climate change.
As we gather again in New York for this session,
the problems are perhaps greater today than they were a
year ago. Security challenges posed by climate change,
conflicts, terrorism, transnational organized crime
and other threats continue to undermine our efforts to
achieve sustainable development, peace and security
for our global community. In the past few weeks, we
have seen heartbreaking events unfold here in the
United States, in Syria, in Pakistan, in Kenya and in
other parts of the world, giving ample evidence of the
growing security threats to our peoples from within our
own societies. We commiserate and join in prayer with
the families of all those affected by those barbaric and
terrorist acts.
The ongoing work of the United Nations, and the
work awaiting us at this session, reflect these challenges,
and the President has appropriately selected the theme
“The post-2015 development agenda: setting the stage”
for our discussions this week. Kiribati welcomes the
theme. We believe that it provides an opportunity for
us to reflect on what we have done and achieved as
individuals, as leaders of our countries, and together as
a global body entrusted with making the world a more
peaceful, secure and better place for everyone. We must
continue to ask ourselves if what we are doing is in the
best interests of all our people, or of just a select few.
We must examine our efforts as leaders of this global
family and ask ourselves if we are doing the right thing
for our children and their children, whose future rests
in our hands and depends on our decisions.
This is the eighth time I have had the honour to
address this Assembly in my ten years as President,
and on each occasion I have sought to convey the same
message. On each occasion, I have spoken of the real
and existential threat to my nation posed by climate
change and sea-level rise, and I have called for urgent
action to ensure the long-term survival of countries like
mine. Last year (see A/67/PV.11), I said that I would
continue to speak of the peril confronting my country
for as long as I have breath in my body.
Well, I am still breathing and the peril remains.
It is a critical issue for the survival of our people and
indeed for all of humankind. Many of us here today
are parents, and even grandparents. I myself have 10
grandchildren. Surely the world that we want to leave
to our grandchildren should be better than the one we
inherited. But we are not on course to achieve that.
In fact, we are disastrously off course. The scientists
tell us — as I am sure they will again reaffirm in their
next assessment report — that calamity awaits, and not
just for those of us on low-lying islands. What we are
experiencing now on these low-lying atoll islands is an
early warning of what will happen further down the
line. No one will be spared.
We cannot continue to abuse our planet in the
same old way. To shape the future we want for our
children and grandchildren, we need leadership, we
need commitment, we need action — now. When we
all return home to our children and grandchildren,
we must be able to look them in the eye and tell them
with confidence that we have done all that is humanly
possible to combat the devastating consequences of
climate change.
We are grateful to the General Assembly for
acknowledging that climate change is a matter that
warrants the attention of the Security Council. I applaud
the commitment of our Secretary-General to that
specific security threat and particularly welcome his
recent announcement to convene a high-level climate
summit at approximately this time next year. It will be
the most significant such event since the Copenhagen
Climate Change Conference in 2009.
But the Secretary-General cannot mobilize the
remedy needed on his own. He will need the support of
all nations to ensure that the action necessary to address
climate change is taken. We must step up our national
and collective efforts to mitigate global greenhouse gas
emissions. We must urge major greenhouse gas emitters
to do their part. We must also call with urgency on our
development partners to assist in our efforts to deal
with the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise
now being experienced in our countries, and in our
efforts to prepare our people for an uncertain future.
The delivery of international adaptation finance
and resources is taking much too long. We cannot
continue to stand on the sidelines and wait for others
to deliver. In Kiribati, we are taking charge of our
situation and moving forward with our mitigation and
adaptation strategies. We have finalized a national
adaptation framework and are now working directly
with our partners on it. Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan
and the World Bank are working with us to implement
our national adaptation priorities.
While we are taking adaptation measures to ensure
that Kiribati remains habitable for as long as possible,
prudence demands that we prepare for the future of
our people. We are looking to improve the skills of our
people to a level where they are able to exercise the
option of migrating, to be able to migrate with dignity.
When it comes to the Millennium Development
Goals, our situation has not changed much since I last
spoke before this body. We are on track on some of the
Goals, but we continue to be off track on most. This, I
believe, should not come as a surprise, as most of the
limited resources we have continue to be diverted from
equally pressing priorities to fighting the onslaught
of the rising seas and storm surges and their impact
on our water supplies, homes, livelihoods and public
infrastructure. This is a costly exercise, one we cannot
afford but that is necessary. We will continue to rely on
the support and goodwill of our partners and members
of our global family in that regard.
As we prepare for the Third International Conference
on Small Island Developing States, to be held in Samoa
in 2014, the special needs of the most vulnerable low-
lying small States, like Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Maldives and Tuvalu, must be highlighted, for how
can we meaningfully discuss sustainable development
goals when a disproportionate amount of our time and
scarce resources are focused on ensuring the survival
of our people?
For us, the ocean is a double-edged sword. Sea-level
rise threatens the very survival of our people. But the
ocean is also an integral part of our lives and provides
daily subsistence for our people. It can and should be a
ticket to freedom from dependency on others. We are a
nation of water. We own substantial fishery resources.
The annual total catch in our waters is valued at some
$400 million. Yet as owners, we receive only 8 per cent
of that sum. Where is the equity, where is the justice
in this?
We believe that this must change. Our objective must
be to maximize the returns from those resources, and
we have started in that direction with the establishment
of our first fish-processing plant through a public-
private partnership. We invite our partners to join us
in that endeavour. I am convinced that, given the right
support, we can achieve sustainable development by
utilizing the available resources of our vast exclusive
economic zone. Through this approach, we can reduce
our reliance on external assistance. I believe that if we
are provided with the support we now need to develop
our capacity to harvest and process our own resources,
we will also be better able to build our climate-change
resilience.
The ocean is the next frontier in the pursuit of
sustainable development. While we have failed to
protect our land and atmosphere from our human
demands, we must make sure that the ocean does not
meet with the same fate.
In June last year, we met in Rio de Janeiro to
review our progress 20 years on from the 1992 Earth
Summit. Unfortunately, our track record in delivering
on our undertakings has not been good. In fact, in many
respects, our environment is worse off today than it
was 21 years ago.We renewed our commitment in Rio
to achieving the future we want, but we need to move
beyond commitments and to act. The future we want
will require this Organization to restructure and realign
itself to reflect the realities of our time: a time in which
new and emerging security threats, such as climate
change, climate variability, sea-level rise and ocean
acidification, are challenging the international system
of governance; a time in which the future survival of
some nations is seriously in question; a time when all
those countries with the ability to do so must contribute
to the prevention of this calamity or be forever judged
by history.
Business as usual can no longer be considered an
option. Let us not limit ourselves to working within the
boundaries of our comfort zones. Let us be inclusive
rather than exclusive. We must listen to civil society,
our youth and women’s groups and allow those with
the ability to make a contribution to join in the global
dialogue and action to address these major challenges.
In that regard, we welcome the continued resolve
of the Secretary-General and the President of the
General Assembly to accelerate action on the reform of
our Organization, to ensure the highest level of global
collaboration, accountability and decisive action, and
to inspire a greater sense of urgency on issues of critical
concern to our global community.
We also welcome the inclusion of Taiwan in the
international processes of the World Health Assembly.
We hope that a similar inclusive approach will prevail in
respect of other international institutions and processes,
so that Taiwan, and others currently excluded, can
participate and contribute meaningfully for the good of
humankind.
Resolution 66/288 calls for a frank assessment of
our global decision-making structure. It requires bold
but rational political commitment on a global scale.
As leaders of our global family, we must be brutally
honest in accepting the fact that unless we act now to
shape the future we want for our children and their
children’s children, the prospects for success will be
bleak. As we chart the path towards the future we want,
we must address the fundamental threats to the security
and very existence of the members of this family of
nations. Once again I call on all of us to ask ourselves
the question, “Whose interests are we pursuing? Are
we here to secure the future of each other’s children
or just our own?” This is the greatest moral challenge
facing us today.