I would like to offer my
congratulations, Mr. President, on your assumption of
the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-
fourth session. Allow me also to commend your
predecessor, Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, for
his capable leadership during the sixty-third session. I
assure you, Sir, of my delegation’s full support and
cooperation as you lead the work of this important
session.
The new millennium has been no stranger to
crisis. We have seen how ideological extremism can
foment turmoil and civil unrest in ways that do not
respect international borders. We have also learned that
financial instability can quickly propagate through
global markets and cause chaos in the real economy.
And we have been repeatedly reminded that we
disrespect the natural environment at our peril.
The global challenges that we face today may
sometimes shock us, but they should not surprise us.
Most stem from problems that have been allowed to
fester and grow for many years, if not decades. All are
inextricably linked to the choices made by the
international community regarding international
commerce and development. The challenges of the new
millennium are global in nature and therefore require a
global response. Now, more than ever, we must
revitalize our multilateral systems of governance in
order to make them more responsive and more
representative. Large countries tend to dominate
international forums and drown out the rest of us.
In the case of climate change and small island
States, I mean that quite literally. We must consider the
impacts of our activities and institutions on the most
vulnerable, so that large and small countries alike can
enjoy the stability and security necessary for
sustainable economic development. In this new
millennium, even the mighty have been humbled. So
what does that mean for a small island nation like
Nauru? When giants stumble, it is usually the smallest
that suffer the most serious injuries.
The international community must begin this
process of renewal by reaffirming its commitment to
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), an
initiative meant to alleviate the burdens of extreme
poverty, hunger, illiteracy, inequality and disease. After
early success in the 1990s, progress towards the MDGs
has slowed throughout the world.
In the Pacific, where nearly 40 per cent of the
population lives on less than a dollar a day, it has been
no different. The reasons are not hard to identify. The
Asian financial crisis was devastating for the
economies in our region. The recent spike in food and
energy prices has strained our limited financial
resources. Now the global economic downturn
threatens to depress our economies even further.
Additionally, the Pacific confronts a unique set of
challenges in reaching our MDGs. Our remoteness
makes it difficult to access world markets and greatly
increases the cost of doing business. Our small size
deprives us of the advantage of economies of scale, and
our vulnerability to climate change places our hard-
won economic and social progress in jeopardy. Perhaps
the most vivid example of our situation is the price of a
bag of rice. For most countries, the food crisis has
eased as commodity prices have fallen but, in Nauru,
the price of a bag of rice has increased by 80 per cent
over the past year, hovering now above $60. The rest of
the world pays less than $25.
The time has come for the international
community to deliver on its promises and to dedicate
0.7 per cent of gross national income to helping
developing countries meet their development goals.
Past recessions have led to a steep drop in levels of
official development assistance. There will be no hope
of reaching our MDGs if that happens again.
It is vitally important for United Nations agencies
to strengthen their engagement in the Pacific region.
For the past four years, Nauru has called upon the
United Nations to establish a presence on the ground
by opening an office in our country. It is my fervent
hope that the next time that I address this body I can
announce that that commitment of the United Nations
has been fulfilled.
The absence of the United Nations in the Pacific
is reflected by the paucity of statistics collected in the
region. Accurate indicators are necessary for tracking
economic and social progress. It is critical for United
Nations agencies and other international institutions to
work more closely with our national Governments and
with regional organizations so that accurate data is
available for planning and policymaking.
The temptation to add layer upon layer of new
programmes must be avoided. We must not forget the
commitments made under the Mauritius Strategy for
the Further Implementation of the Programme of
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Action for the Sustainable Development of Small
Island Developing States, the Monterrey Consensus,
the Paris Declaration and other international
agreements. Too often, the United Nations and other
development partners succeed in delivering many new
reports, but fail to deliver tangible results. Action plans
are no substitute for action. We must dispense with the
excuse that helping poor countries develop is
something that we cannot afford. That is simply not
true. Quite the opposite: in a globalized world, leaving
large portions of the world to languish in poverty is
what we cannot afford.
The international community must also reform
the world financial system so that all developing
countries share equitably in global economic
prosperity. The current economic crisis has revealed
deep flaws in our international financial system. The
overriding goals of those reforms should be to facilitate
growth in developing nations and to increase their
resilience to abrupt economic fluctuations and the
fickle flow of capital.
While Nauru does not have a mature financial
sector, shocks to the international system can be
devastating to our local economy and dry up vital
development assistance. To be effective, development
assistance needs to be reliable. That is not possible
without a stable and transparent financial system.
Lastly, the international community must next
take swift steps to mitigate climate change, starting
with a bold agreement in Copenhagen. Climate change
presents the greatest threat for my country and many
other small island developing States. Scientists warn
that, within our children’s lifetime, sea levels may rise
by a metre or more. That would wipe out low-lying
coastal areas, and many Pacific islands would be a
distant memory.
However, we do not need to wait for that
catastrophic scenario to see the impacts of climate
change. We live with them every day. Flooding and
inundation are already eroding our shores and
contaminating our water supply. Higher water
temperatures and ocean acidification are damaging the
marine ecosystems that we depend on for food and our
economic livelihood. We pray that malaria does not
find its way to our doorstep.
I applaud the commitment of the Secretary-
General to addressing that issue and his efforts to build
consensus among world leaders this week at the high-
level Summit on Climate Change. From Asia to Africa
and the Arctic, he has visited affected regions to
observe the effects of climate change first hand, but not
the Pacific, one of the most vulnerable regions in the
world.
When the Secretary-General glances out the
window of his aircraft while travelling between Asia
and the Americas, I would ask that he remember that,
in the vast expanse of water below, there is a whole
region of people living on small islands who are
already grappling with the consequences of climate
change. I encourage that his next trip be to the nations
of the Pacific before they disappear.
The science tells us that we must reduce the
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to
350 parts per million or less in order to avoid the most
dire climate change scenarios. However, most
developed countries have proposed emissions targets
that would result in concentrations far higher.
That is not acceptable policy when human lives
are at stake. If a doctor prescribes medicine to treat a
serious illness, do we only give the patient half of what
is needed? If an engineer says eight columns are
necessary to support a building, would any responsible
person recommend that we use only four? Then why
are the most vulnerable countries asked to accept
proposals that would surely lead to our extinction?
That is not good enough when the lives of real people
from real places are being threatened.
Developed countries must also provide the
financial, technical and human resources necessary for
us to address a problem that was not of our own
making. Nauru joins the Alliance of Small Island States
in calling for developed countries to provide the
equivalent of 1 per cent of their gross domestic product
for urgent adaptation and mitigation efforts in
developing countries. That must be in addition to their
current commitments for development assistance.
Climate change calls for the widest possible
cooperation from every member of the international
community. Taiwan, as one of the world’s 20 largest
economies, can contribute in many ways and should be
invited to play a larger role in the United Nations
system, particularly in the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change process. Taiwan has
much to offer to vulnerable countries, especially in
adaptation measures, technology transfer and
financing.
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Climate change is an imminent threat to
international security. It is therefore vital that the
Security Council be seized of the issue and closely
monitor new developments. Special attention must be
paid to the most vulnerable countries, including the
small island developing States and least developed
countries, and also to vulnerable groups within
countries, including women and children, indigenous
people and the poor.
The challenges of the new millennium can be
overcome only through multilateral cooperation and a
revitalized United Nations system. It is necessary for
the Security Council to be more representative in both
the permanent and non-permanent categories to reflect
current geopolitical realities, which is why Japan,
India, Germany and Brazil should be made permanent
members. I also call upon the General Assembly, as the
world’s most representative governance body, to accept
Taiwan’s meaningful participation in its specialized
agencies and other world forums.
We have seen the power of multilateral
cooperation around the world and close to home. My
country was at the brink of economic collapse at the
beginning of this decade. In cooperation with Pacific
Islands Forum member Governments, my country
outlined a number of key governance and development
priorities in the Pacific Regional Assistance for Nauru
(PRAN) programme. It included a re-evaluation of
fiscal policies and objectives, review of our
Constitution, and reforms for our education and health
sectors. I am proud that in just four years we have
reached the goals laid out in PRAN, so much so that at
the fortieth Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting,
held in Cairns, Australia just last month, leaders agreed
that Nauru had emerged from the crisis phase and was
on the path to sustainable economic recovery and
development, and that PRAN was no longer required.
PRAN was an excellent example of how country-
focused development aid can quickly lift a nation out
of crisis and back onto the path towards sustainable
development. PRAN was successful because it
identified concrete objectives and was backed by
sufficient funds. Future programmes in the region
should likewise bring tangible benefits and be free
from political influence.
Here I must acknowledge and express Nauru’s
deepest appreciation to Australia, New Zealand,
Taiwan, Japan and Forum island countries, our own
regional organizations and others for their unwavering
funding and other forms of support to PRAN. The
people of Nauru will always remember their generosity
during our time of need.
We are also grateful to the United Nations
Democracy Fund. With its assistance, Nauru recently
adopted a number of important constitutional
amendments that will enhance good governance and
bring increased stability and responsiveness to my
Government.
One of the founding fathers of the United Nations
once said, “The test of our progress is not whether we
add more to the abundance of those who have much; it
is whether we provide enough for those who have too
little”. President Roosevelt passed away before the
inaugural session of the General Assembly, but those of
us here today have the responsibility to see that his
spirit lives on.
The United Nations system of multilateral
governance was born out of a time of great crisis and it
ushered in over half a century of peace and prosperity.
However, the benefits were not shared equally, and two
thirds of humanity was largely left behind. The time
has come to take up the project begun 64 years ago so
that future prosperity can be shared by all, including
the smallest and most vulnerable. The United Nations
continues to be our best hope for creating a fairer and
more just world.
God bless the Republic of Nauru, and God bless
the United Nations.