I wish to offer my warm
congratulations to Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on his
election to the presidency of the General Assembly at
its sixty-fourth session. We are confident that he will
live up to the high standards set by his esteemed
predecessor.
Allow me to begin my remarks today by thanking
members of the General Assembly for their positive
5 09-52470
action this past June in adopting resolution 63/281, on
climate change and its possible security implications.
Developed and developing countries alike worked
together with the smallest and most vulnerable to do
something that would have been unthinkable just a few
years ago. It is now becoming all the more compelling
that we work together, as we did in adopting that
resolution, to act decisively in confronting this threat.
The importance of this groundbreaking resolution
cannot be overstated. Its message is clear: climate
change is a threat to international peace and security.
The resolution is a historic milestone for this body.
Climate change, including its far-reaching effects and
its security implications, is the defining issue for the
world today — an issue that should command the
attention and support of everyone.
When we met here last year, the world economy
was going through a time of unprecedented crisis.
Fearing that the global economy was heading for
collapse, the world stood together and, with strong
determination and swiftness, adopted difficult but
concrete measures aimed at averting that global
disaster. In keeping with the spirit of cooperation, it is
indispensable for the international community to be
steadfast and bold enough to take equally difficult
decisions to address the climate change crisis without
delay. Accelerating action by and cooperation among
Governments, the private sector and civil society is
imperative in order to meet the challenge posed by
climate change.
Given the critical importance of climate change
to my country, allow me to address that issue here
again. I thank the Secretary-General for bringing more
attention to climate change and for convening the high-
level Summit on Climate Change on 22 September
2009.
For us Micronesians and our fellow Pacific
islanders, including those of other parts of the world,
climate change is a matter of survival as peoples,
cultures and nations. For centuries, the people of
Micronesia have lived on their small islands, many less
than a metre above sea level. They have enjoyed a life
dependent on the bounties of the sea and the harvest
from the land. They have developed a culture of
respect for nature and have lived in harmony with their
natural surroundings. They built outrigger canoes and
rigged them with sails from pandanus leaves. Long
before Magellan, they sailed the vast expanse of the
Pacific Ocean, aided only by an intimate understanding
of the stars and ocean currents.
Sadly, today’s disregard for our planet is slowly
making the ocean that has always nurtured us the very
instrument of our destruction. Micronesia is already
experiencing the brunt of the negative impacts of
climate change. The sea-level rise, changing weather
patterns and an increase in the frequency and intensity
of natural disasters, such as typhoons, are all
undermining our development efforts. The years of El
Niño have brought more droughts and increased
rainfall, causing substantial damage to staple crops.
Our taro patches and arable lands are limited to begin
with. Compounding the problem is the intrusion of salt
water, damaging basic crops, including taro and
coconut trees — our tree of life. What if the melting of
polar ice sheets and glaciers were to reach an
irreversible point? The outcome is crystal-clear:
Micronesia and all low-lying islands would disappear
from the face of the Earth. But the effects would go
much further, endangering coastal cities and
communities all over the world, including Manhattan.
Our vulnerability compels us to take proactive
concerted action in seeking fast-track solutions. In that
regard, I am pleased to share two specific mitigation
measures taken by my Government.
The first action taken by Micronesia is a proposal
that has been submitted to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC). The aim of the proposal is to make a
modest beginning to evaluating rapid mitigation
strategies by establishing a four-year programme for
experts to report on ways to achieve rapid mitigation
by dealing with short-lived non-carbon dioxide agents,
including black carbon, under the auspices of
UNFCCC.
This year, Micronesia and Mauritius proposed a
two-part amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase
down the production and use of hydrofluorocarbons
(HFCs). Secondly, our proposal would expand efforts
to destroy so-called banks of discarded refrigerants that
are harmful to climate. Our proposal, with additional
sponsors, has started a global dialogue on the
demonstrated versatility of the Montreal Protocol as a
treaty for early climate protection.
I want to commend the North American countries
for their strong support and action on HFCs. Recently,
the United States, Canada and Mexico added their
09-52470 6
support to the proposal to use the Montreal Protocol to
phase down HFCs. That kind of cooperation, between
developed and developing countries, is what we need.
We therefore urge the North American countries and
others to support the second part of the amendment
proposed by Micronesia and Mauritius.
The bottom line is that Micronesia has already
suffered the effects of climate change. We therefore
seek to draw the attention of the world to any and all
possibilities for rapid mitigation action that could buy
us more time while the long-term war against carbon
dioxide proceeds.
Allow me now to briefly focus on several other
areas of priority to my country. To effectively manage
and conserve our biodiversity and limited natural
resources, Micronesia continues to work with other
Governments in our subregion to meet the
commitments of the Micronesia Challenge, which calls
for the conservation of at least 30 per cent of the area’s
marine resources and 20 per cent of its land resources
by 2020. We acknowledge the support of our friends
and development partners who have helped us
implement that initiative.
As part of our national development agenda,
especially in the priority areas of health, education and
private sector development, we are seeking to acquire
comprehensive broadband connectivity capacity
through undersea fibre-optic cable. That will enable us
to meet the objectives of the World Summit on the
Information Society and the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). We are also taking the necessary
measures to liberalize the environment for
telecommunications services in order to promote
competition and to put in place an appropriate national
information and communications technology plan.
To achieve those objectives, we look to the United
Nations system, the International Telecommunication
Union and our development partners for their support
and guidance.
Micronesia is indeed undertaking a wide variety
of tasks as it strives to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals. We recognize that some of the
Goals can be especially difficult for us to sustain, even
though we may be on track to achieve them. Progress
towards the MDGs is inherently threatened by the
nature of our vulnerability to climate change.
As an island State with a large excusive economic
zone abundant with marine and fisheries resources, we
are naturally concerned about unsustainable fishing
practices. We are also concerned about the unabated
incidence of illegal, unreported unregulated fishing,
which only robs the coastal island nations of their most
precious resource, which is fish.
At a time when the world food market is deeply
affected by the food crisis and economic turmoil,
Micronesians are increasingly dependent on the
bounties of the sea to provide their nourishment and
their economic development. That is precisely why we
remain concerned about the collateral catches and
discards in commercial fisheries, as they deprive our
people of the critical resources that they depend upon
for their subsistence living and that are of cultural
importance. The international community must help us
to find ways to minimize and eliminate that wasteful
harvesting of resources. Economic resources are
critical to successfully implementing our nation-
building efforts.
Micronesia has a genuine interest in the reform of
the Security Council — a Council that must embrace
an expansion in both of its membership categories, to
be more inclusive and broadly representative and to
reflect the present realities of the world in the new
century. We urge the President of the Assembly to carry
forward the intergovernmental negotiations that were
begun during its sixty-third session. I reiterate our
support for the candidacies of Japan, India and
Germany for permanent membership on the Council.
December is around the corner and the world
needs to seal the deal in Copenhagen. The task will not
be easy, but we must not fail. Millions of lives are at
risk and our homelands are in peril.
Micronesia is a member of the Alliance of Small
Island States and our position is well known. We have
repeatedly called for a strong agreement that must
leave no island behind. Our collective failure to meet
this challenge now will lead us towards colossal and
irreversible damage to our Mother Earth.
When the health of our planet needs remedy and
the lives of millions depend on our action, we must
respond and take appropriate and swift action. I am
aware that different States have different ideas of what
a strong deal means, but mistrust between countries
cannot become a reason for failure, nor can economic
considerations become an excuse for inaction.
7 09-52470
Throughout the history of humankind, there have
been examples of nations that disagreed coming
together for their own survival during a crisis, be it
during a time of war, economic hardship or epidemic.
Today, that crisis is climate change. There is simply no
more time to waste, and I will therefore stop here. Talk
is cheap; action speaks louder than words. And we
need action. Let us go to Copenhagen to seal the deal.
We will all meet again in Copenhagen.