At the outset, let me
extend my congratulations and appreciation to the
President of the General Assembly for his leadership
and work with the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth
session and to the Secretary-General for his continuing
leadership.
The Palauan flag depicts a yellow full moon against
a blue ocean. That combination of moon and ocean is a
metaphor for nature’s balance and harmony through the
consistency of the rising and falling tides. Just before
I left to come to the General Assembly, during a full
moon high tide, my back yard, which nestles against
the ocean, flooded. Typhoon Usagi passed through the
Pacific just a few days later and landed in Asia, killing
many people. It was followed almost immediately by
Tropical Storm Pabuk.
When I was a child, my back yard did not flood
and we did not have tropical storm after tropical storm
pass through our Pacific islands. It is therefore as clear
to me as it is to other Pacific leaders that the full moon
and the ocean are no longer metaphors for balance and
harmony. Today they represent imbalance from our
past excesses and a lack of harmony due to our current
inability, as the Secretary-General has so often said, to
create the world we want.
The leaders and the people of the world certainly
face many challenges moving forward in creating the
world we want and in developing a sustainable future.
In addressing the next round of sustainable development
goals and in responding to the ever-growing challenges
of global warming, it is imperative that we all do a better
job of working together to solve the serious issues that
we face.
World leaders at the 1992 Earth Summit in
Rio established a positive and rational vision of
partnership and sustainable development for the
world. Unfortunately, that vision seems to have been
sidetracked. There is therefore frustration in many
countries today related to our failure to move that vision
forward, the slow pace in progress in meeting our joint
goals, and the fear that those goals are being diluted.
Today, it appears that the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change has stalled, that the
Kyoto Protocol is on life support, and that the United
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
has not done enough to strengthen our three pillars
of sustainable development. Our job as leaders is to
reinvigorate our efforts by establishing real mitigation
commitments and identifying immediate, sufficient
and long-term implementation financing.
Together, we reaffirmed the principle of common
but differentiated responsibilities at Rio and moved
forward with the green economy approach to
sustainable development issues. We must not allow our
green economy to become business as usual. Rather,
we must take concrete actions to make real our stated
reaffirmation of the principles of the Monterrey
Consensus and the Doha Declaration on Financing
for Development. Only then will our sustainable
development goals discussed at this session of the
Generally Assembly have a real chance to respond to our
current worldwide environmental and developmental
emergency.
It is clear that what is needed today is
leadership — leadership from the developed world and
leadership from the developing world; leadership that
focuses beyond borders and looks farther than today’s
problems; ultimately, leadership that creates a broad
consensus vision to preserve our planet for tomorrow’s
children. Such leadership must be based upon concrete
and clear principles that will help guide all of our
actions.
First, all nations, large and small, must accept
direct and primary responsibility for global issues that
threaten our planetary future, and must immediately
take appropriate action. Secondly, we must protect
the natural resources of all people and all nations,
and recognize that no nation has the right to pollute
the resources of another. Thirdly, we must recognize
the need for the richer nations of the world to actively
address actions that threaten the poorer nations of the
world. Fourthly, we must protect human resources
through governing strategies that focus on broad-based
education, health, jobs and equal opportunities, and
that acknowledge cultures, traditions and homelands.
Finally, we must agree, in all matters, to promote and
protect the human rights and peaceful existence of all
the people of the world. Discussion, not weapons, is
the best way to resolve differences and uphold human
rights.
Let me interject here that as we witness so many
areas of conflict on our planet, I think it is time for all of
us, as leaders, to use this great institution and our own
efforts to condemn violence against people, including
the use of chemical weapons, for any reason, and to
seek an end to armed conflict wherever we can. The
events in Kenya are but one of a series of violent acts
against people that we must work together to eliminate.
Our global warming doomsday is already set
in stone if we fail to act. It is therefore our job as
leaders to take all necessary action to eliminate the
current threat. My country, along with other Pacific
island nations, is unwilling even to discuss a 3°C-to-
5°C temperature-increase scenario by the end of the
century, for that will ensure our demise. We are also
unwilling to discuss the issue of migration. Instead, we
will continue to work with our developed partners to
implement strong mitigation commitments and follow-
through action to hold the line on that increase to a
more realistic 1.5°C level.
My small Pacific country supports the concepts
inherent in the Majuro Declaration for Climate
Leadership, issued at the Pacific Island Forum this year.
The Declaration acknowledges the gross insufficiency
of current efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
It also recognizes the necessity of ramping up climate
change responses immediately and provides a platform
for country leaders to establish new and realistic
reduction commitments. As leaders, we must all
respond to global warming in both the short and long
term, from the top down and the bottom up, both pre-
2020 and post-2020.
We should not forget, however, that the primary
responsibility for reducing greenhouse gases still rests
with our developed partners. We must therefore use
the opportunity of the nineteenth session of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
to be held in Warsaw, and thereafter, to support the
technical work needed to fast-track the policies and
technologies appropriate to accomplishing our goal; to
revive the Kyoto Protocol or develop a more responsive
alternative, and deliver and expand on commitments
to reduce greenhouse gases; to phase out inefficient
fossil-fuel subsidies that distort world oil prices; and
to arrive at a legally binding agreement to respond to
and compensate for loss and damage associated with
the impact of climate change in vulnerable countries.
Here at the United Nations in New York, we must
deal with global warming security issues by appointing
a special representative on climate and security to help
expand our understanding of the security dimensions of
climate change, and by establishing a joint task force,
led by the Secretary-General, to assess and expand
United Nations capacity to respond to the security
implications of climate change. We must make 2014
the year of ambition. As host of the forty-fifth Pacific
Islands Forum, Palau pledges to use that summit to
build on the Majuro Declaration and to drive greater
action. As leaders, we must also come to the Secretary-
General’s climate change summit next year ready to
discuss the new mitigation actions we are prepared to
take and the plans necessary to see that they are fully
implemented.
My country is trying with all its might to embrace
its leadership on issues of sustainable development. To
date, Palau has committed to providing 20 per cent of
its energy through renewable sources by 2020 and to
reducing energy consumption through efficiency and
conservation efforts. We have also declared and begun
to implement the Micronesia Challenge, which commits
the Micronesian region to effectively conserving at least
30 per cent of near-shore marine resources and 20 per
cent of terrestrial resources by 2020. In that effort, Palau
and other Micronesian jurisdictions have strengthened
or established more than 150 protected and managed
areas covering more than 680,000 hectares, leveraged
more than $20 million in operational funds and inspired
other efforts, such as the Caribbean Challenge, the
Coral Triangle initiative and the Western Indian Ocean
Coastal Challenge.
In addition, we have recently sponsored the
creation of a Pacific Islands Forum invasive species
advisory group to improve regional efforts to reduce
the expansion of invasive species throughout the
Pacific. Palau has also pioneered the planet’s first shark
sanctuary and, finally, recently engaged to pursue our
most ambitious commitment to date — establishing
the world’s first comprehensive marine sanctuary,
which will close Palau’s exclusive economic zone to
commercial fishing. We ask all the nations of the world
to move in a similar direction, while recognizing their
own unique circumstances, to help protect our planet’s
natural resources. An example of one simple action
that would have a major impact on saving our shark
population would be the prohibition of shark’s fin soup.
That is something that everyone in the world can clearly
do without.
We are at a historic global moment. A year from
now, the United Nations will launch the sustainable
development goals, in a framework that will define
the relationship between our peoples and our planet
for generations to come. Through those goals, we must
commit to a more sustainable use of the oceans. They
cover two-thirds of the world’s surface and connect
90 per cent of its population. A billion people are
dependent on their fish. The oceans’ health is undeniably
linked to our culture, societies and economies. Yet
in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the
oceans received no mention. As the MDGs wind down
in 2015, we need a new paradigm.
It is therefore time to enunciate our commitment
to our oceans with a sustainable development goal that
deals exclusively with them. Drawing from the lessons
learned from the MDGs, we as leaders must create a goal
that is resonant, measurable and easily communicated.
Failure to do so will leave us naked before the shifting
tides. In our sustainable development goals, we must
also focus on non-communicable diseases (NCDs),
which cause two-thirds of the world’s 57 million deaths
annually. Within that context, we should also recognize
that tobacco consumption, which was not included in
the MDGs, has a direct impact on worsening NCDs and
must therefore be separately targeted.
None of our leadership goals can be achieved
without strong partnerships. Fortunately, Palau has
been blessed over the last half-century with strong
regional and international partners. I would first like
to acknowledge the more than 50 years of support and
leadership shown to us by the United States. We stand
with the United States in its ongoing efforts to guide the
international response to the horrific actions in Syria.
We are also grateful for its very generous economic
support over the years, and for being a reliable ally on
which we can depend. We look forward to the final
completion of the treaty that will renew and reinforce
our relationship.
Palau would also like to acknowledge the significant
support we have received over the years from our friend
Japan. We are hopeful that expansion and reform of the
Security Council will result in permanent membership
of the Council for Japan. In addition, we would like
to thank the Republic of China on Taiwan for its
friendship and economic support in helping Palau to
achieve its Millennium Development Goals and move
on to the post-2015 development agenda through grants
and technical assistance in the areas of infrastructure,
food security enhancement and human capacity. We
strongly support Taiwan’s expanded participation in
the United Nations system, acknowledge the expansion
of its meaningful participation in United Nations
specialized agencies and mechanisms, and call on the
United Nations system to accept Taiwan’s participation
as a valuable contributor to our collective efforts.
Beginning with the leadership of those assembled
here, and working down to every level of international
action and cooperation, we can respond, in a timely and
expedited fashion, to the real emergencies we face. But
the time for excuses is over. It is now time for leaders
to lead.