Palau

On behalf of President Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., and the people of Palau, I offer my congratulations to the President on his election. I assure him and all Member States that the United Nations will have my Government’s full cooperation and support in the coming year. Our existential challenge is climate change. To quote the text prepared for the President’s address at the opening of this session, we “cannot accept, under any circumstance, proposals for mandatory emissions reduction targets that take for granted sacrificing the homelands of entire peoples”. We must reach an agreement on a set of quantified emission reduction targets for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. These targets must reflect the urgency of the circumstances. The post-2012 regime must address mitigating the impacts of climate change on small island developing States. As the text of the President’s opening address states, Member States “must be guided by a single consideration: saving those small island States that today live in danger of disappearing entirely as nations”. Never before in all history has the disappearance of whole nations been such a real possibility. As we noted in Niue, Palau and the members of the Pacific Islands Forum are deeply concerned about the growing threat that climate change poses not only to our sustainable development, but in fact to our future survival. This is a security matter that has gone unaddressed. 08-51845 30 It is for this reason that the Pacific Small Island Developing States submitted a draft resolution at the sixty-second session of the General Assembly requesting that the Security Council honour the Charter of the United Nations and actively continue its consideration of the security implications of climate change. We were gratified by the positive response from the international community and thank our many co-sponsors for their support. We will reintroduce our resolution in the sixty-third session and look forward to Assembly action this fall. In the meantime, we cannot wait. While Palau contributes little to greenhouse gas emissions, we are taking significant steps to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel, despite the detrimental economic consequences to us. The number of projects on energy efficiency and renewable energy has been increased, and we thank our donor partners for their support. We appreciate the support of Italy and Austria in supporting development cooperation with respect to energy for sustainable development. We also thank the European Union for their ongoing assistance in the area of renewable energy. We sincerely hope that Taiwan will be able to participate in the specialized agencies of the United Nations. The Republic of China’s meaningful participation in those agencies, such as the World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization, would help promote peace and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, enhance important dialogue and help all peoples. The oceans that surround Palau are the backbone of our nation’s existence and are integral to our continued viability as an independent nation. At the sixty-first session we banded together to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems from deep sea bottom trawling, a destructive fishing practice responsible for 95 per cent of the worldwide damage to seamounts. We congratulate the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation for adopting interim measures that are a substantial step towards eliminating bottom trawling. We urge all other regional fisheries management organizations and flag States to follow this example, and we remind everyone that the deadline to take action, 31 December 2008, is fast approaching. Palau has been active on the issue of bottom trawling because of its effects on ocean ecosystems. The North Pacific is home to some of the world’s best remaining fisheries. Their diversity is a key reason for the Micronesia Challenge, whereby the countries and territories of Micronesia joined together to conserve 30 per cent of near-shore marine resources and 20 per cent of land resources by the year 2020. This project is the first of its kind in the world. It covers 6.7 million square miles of ocean and helps to protect 10 per cent of the world’s coral reefs, including more than 60 threatened species. We thank the General Assembly for its recognition of this programme at its sixty-second session, in resolution 62/215 on oceans and law of the sea and thank our development partners, including Turkey, the Global Environment Fund, the Nature Conservancy and Conservation International for their support. Since Palau joined the United Nations in 1994, we have highlighted our concern that the Organization has no presence in our country. We were pleased therefore when the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children’s Fund announced that eight new joint offices would open in Pacific island countries, including Palau. We welcome that historic accomplishment and await the opening ceremony. Palau is an active participant in the efforts of the international community to combat terrorism and has made every effort to improve its anti-terrorism capacity. We have met with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate to advance our requests for assistance, particularly in the area of combating money-laundering and terrorism financing. Unfortunately, the efforts of the Directorate have been insufficient. Our experience has been that the capacity- building efforts of the United Nations have focused on helping countries draft and adopt legislation. That is an excellent first step, but an insufficient one, as the best- designed legislation is meaningless without enforcement. We hope that, during the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, the United Nations will take the next step and help smaller countries that have the drive but not the means to operationalize the laws and regulations they have in place to fight terrorism. We urge the establishment of a voluntary trust fund that would allow small States to develop effective counter- terrorism initiatives. We thank the United States and 31 08-51845 Australia for the counter-terrorism assistance they have given us. Urgent attention should be paid to Security Council reform. Without it, there can be no genuine United Nations reform. Japan has demonstrated its concern for and commitment to Palau and all its Pacific neighbours, and should be a permanent member of the Council. Likewise, India, the world’s largest democracy, is a developing nation with a deep sense of involvement in Palau and the rest of the Pacific. We have supported and continue to support the principles of the draft resolution proposed by the Group of Four countries. We have worked very hard to change the dates for submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. The new submission regime will allow developing countries to preserve our claims to the resources contained in our extended continental shelf. Though that extension of time for submission is welcome, it is only half the battle. We still need the resources and the technical expertise necessary to make a full submission, and we request the assistance of the international community in helping us to achieve that goal. Palau was the last country to emerge from the United Nations trusteeship system. The United Nations helped to return our sovereignty after four colonial administrations. We are thus particularly proud to advance the objectives of this unique institution and look forward to working together to achieve them during this session of the General Assembly. In closing, let me thank the Assembly in my country’s native language: Kom Kmal Mesulang.