I am honoured by this
opportunity to address the General Assembly at its
sixty-third session. This great institution plays a vital
role in the development process of its members and
remains the global organization best situated to address
the world’s pressing needs and to help find solutions
for them. So, it is with pleasure that I use this occasion
to make the following remarks on a few challenging
issues of vital significance confronting Micronesia
today.
I must first congratulate His Excellency
Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann on his election to the
presidency of the Assembly. He has my delegation’s
admiration and full support. In the same vein, I
commend the dedication and stewardship of Mr. Srgjan
Kerim, President of the Assembly at its sixty-second
session.
I wish to offer my greetings to our able Secretary-
General and to express the best wishes of my
Government as he continues to lead the Organization
through the difficult challenges ahead.
The General Assembly is meeting at a time of
unusual uncertainties surrounding the global economy.
The world financial situation and the double threat
posed by the fuel and food crises impose additional
strain on all of us and negatively impact our efforts to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
and our pursuit of sustainable development. The
security of our island countries remains under threat by
the effects of climate change.
The fuel crisis is a major challenge to the
Members of this Organization. There are few countries
in this world that are left unscathed by the worldwide
fuel crises. Too often, I am afraid, those most affected
by the crisis are those Members of the United Nations
that can least afford an effective response. More often
than not, they are the small island developing States
that are also the most vulnerable Members of this
Organization.
The developed countries may have room to
respond to the worsening energy crisis without
jeopardizing other development programmes. But for
us in Micronesia, we are painfully aware of the strong
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and adverse impacts on everything from government
operations to the effect on individual households and
families.
In a very real sense, the lingering global energy
crisis has transformed the energy debate and
highlighted the world’s dependence on fossil fuel.
Power outages in our state centres have become a
regular phenomenon affecting our medical facilities,
schools, businesses and everyday government
operations, including services to our remote outer
islands, which are reachable only by ships. These
setbacks are the result of our inability to procure fuel at
a reasonable cost. While we recognize that fossil fuel
will, in the medium term, remain a necessity, the
current energy crisis strengthens Micronesia’s resolve
to call for the acceleration of the development of
technologies for renewable and affordable sources of
energy. Micronesia recognizes that special assistance
from the international community and financial
institutions in the area of renewable energy is
necessary to achieve this goal. We are grateful to our
friends that have over time generously extended
assistance to that end.
The General Assembly, by its own resolutions,
recognizes everyone’s right to food. On a global scale,
that right is being threatened as the world faces a
severe food crisis. Already, the cost of imported
foodstuffs has increased considerably, and my
Government and people are thus faced with yet another
development challenge — one that has already been
exacerbated by the energy crisis. The cost of rice, one
of the main imported foodstuffs, which has become a
main staple in my people’s diet, is no longer
affordable. My Government, in responding to the food
crisis, has encouraged the people to increase the local
production of our own crops. But that cannot be
achieved without the support and cooperation of our
development partners and the United Nations system.
The nexus between food security and climate
change cannot be overlooked. In Micronesia, farmlands
and inhabitants occupy the low-lying fringes and
islands barely a few metres above sea level. Taro
patches, which provided the main staple of our people
for centuries, are now under threat by sea level rise.
Already, many islands have experienced inundation of
their taro patches and fields of other food crops by salt
water, resulting in decreased crop production.
Of equal importance to our self-sufficiency and in
meeting some of our nutritional needs is the bounty of
our ocean. The ocean is of fundamental importance to
Micronesia, as we rely heavily on it. The ocean
sustains us, and its resources enrich us. At a time when
the world food market is deeply affected by the food
crisis, Micronesians are increasingly dependent on the
bounty of the sea to provide for their food and for their
economic development. It is therefore of paramount
importance that we continue to conserve and manage
sustainably the use of our marine and fisheries
resources. But collateral catches and discards in
commercial fisheries remain a concern to us. For
Micronesians, these are critical resources that are of
cultural importance, and our people depend upon them
for their subsistence living. The international
community must help us find ways to minimize and
eliminate this wasteful use of resources.
Equally damaging to fish stocks is the incidence
of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
This practice continues to deprive our people of their
food resources, while the illegal operators continue to
reap and enjoy the rewards from this activity without
any accountability. The major consumer and market
outlets must reduce this illegal activity if we are to
effectively eliminate this abhorrent and unsustainable
practice.
The world’s financial turbulence, as evidenced by
the current delicate situation in the host country, is
another matter of concern. While the situation
emanates from the bigger economies, all of us are at
risk, as we are all part of the globalized economy. We
encourage the developed countries not to use this as a
convenient excuse to reverse their gains in reaching the
agreed target of 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic
product for official development assistance.
My delegation is encouraged by the spirit and
determination of the Members of the United Nations to
bring Security Council reform a step closer to reality.
Our task remains difficult, but we are encouraged by
the recent decision of the General Assembly and look
forward to the beginning of the process of
intergovernmental negotiations. Among other things,
we reiterate our support for the expansion of both
membership categories and reaffirm our long-standing
view that Japan and India, from the Asian Group,
should become permanent members of a reformed
Security Council. We also renew our support for
Germany, from Western Europe.
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In the attainment of the international
development goals, there is no single issue that
presents such an enormous challenge to small island
developing States, such as the Federated States of
Micronesia, than that of climate change. Micronesia is
especially concerned about climate change and the
grave threat of sea-level rise, which can literally wash
away our islands and culture. Three recent articles have
been published in the prestigious science journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
addressing the tipping points for abrupt climate
change, including sea-level rise.
A tipping point is a point of no return beyond
which an element of the climate system abruptly tips
into a new state, with a profound impact on the planet.
Examples include tipping points for the melting of
glaciers and snow pack from the Tibetan Plateau — the
headwaters of most of the rivers in Asia — and the
disintegration of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice
sheets, which will cause metres of sea-level rise.
The news is startling. Simply put, it means that
the planet is in peril — and the islands and low-lying
States are, of course, in peril. But we cannot afford to
be paralysed. We must undertake an aggressive
programme of fast-track mitigation strategies, starting
with those that are already justified by their strong
co-benefits. This includes the strategy Micronesia
promoted last year and again this year to strengthen the
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer. Our strategy can play a strong role in
protecting the climate system as well as the
stratospheric ozone layer.
Let me make one final suggestion. Tipping points
for abrupt climate change have been called the shadow
that haunts climate negotiations. This issue is a shadow
because it has never been squarely addressed by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The global debate on climate change is
predominantly framed from a sustainable development
perspective. We could not agree more with that focus.
But Micronesia is convinced that, while sustainable
development is of paramount importance, we must also
be assured of our security and our territorial integrity.
We must approach climate change from a holistic
perspective rather than limiting it to the dimensions of
sustainable development, to humanitarian or technical
issues, or to economic or environmental issues.
Climate change also has an impact on our human
rights. It has an impact on international peace and on
our own security and territorial integrity, and on our
very existence as inhabitants of very small and
vulnerable island nations.
Experts have warned that climate change is also a
threat to international peace and security. Yet, instead
of addressing the issue squarely, the United Nations
seems to be more concerned about turf and
encroachment, as if it were wrong to admit that
territorial integrity, national stability and security
might be threatened by the impact of climate change,
and that human conflicts might also arise as a direct or
indirect result of climate change. Just as the IPCC
reports, the Stern Review report and the 2007 Human
Development Report inform the negotiations in the
context of the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change, a report analysing the potential
impact of climate change on international peace and
security should provide additional reasons for urgent
and adequate climate change mitigation actions.
Our future — our environment — is at stake. Our
culture and our human rights are at stake. But we must
not lose hope, because the entire world is represented
here. The time to act is now, not later.