I am honoured, Sir, to add
Grenada’s voice to the many warm congratulations
offered you on your election as President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. Grenada
looks forward to working with you and pledges to
support your leadership as you exercise impartial
stewardship over this fine institution. Equally, we
commend your predecessor, Father Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann, for his dedication and conviction in
pursuing the vision of the United Nations as a home for
social justice for all, particularly those who carry the
greatest burden.
Through you, Mr. President, Grenada wishes to
highly commend Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and
his staff for their performance over the past year in
advancing the work of this Organization and
“delivering as one”. We thank the Secretary-General
for his interest and participation in the recently
concluded Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
Climate Change Summit, chaired by Grenada. We wish
him and the Secretariat every continued success.
The challenges facing the global community are
mirrored in our regional and national context.
Fortunately, we have no better place than within these
hallowed walls to continue the long and important
journey of building a better world. We cannot respond
to one challenge and choose to ignore another, because
all of them are interconnected. Indeed, working
together is our raison d’être — the essence of the
“united” in the United Nations.
Climate change is rightfully described as the most
urgent threat facing mankind, and, at least for the next
several months, it will remain at the top of the global
diplomatic and negotiating agenda. But what is the
challenge of climate change if not a risk to
development, security and peace? What is the threat of
climate change, if not a threat to the very notion of
human survival and ecological balance? For small
States, this threat is particularly pronounced.
Today, I address this Assembly on the heels of
two very important responses to climate change — the
AOSIS Climate Change Summit and the Secretary-
General’s summit on climate change. What is clear
from these very well attended global meetings is that
for developing countries such as Grenada, the alarm
has been sounded — the alarm that climate change is
bearing down on our countries and undermining our
potential for both economic recovery in the short term
and economic growth in the longer term.
It is hampering our efforts to attain sustainable
development, as set out in the Barbados Plan of Action
and the Mauritius Strategy for Further Implementation.
In the case of Grenada, this is due to our dependence
on our natural resource base, which supports
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agriculture and tourism. Together, they account for
more than 40 per cent of our gross domestic product
(GDP), and they are extremely vulnerable to the
negative impacts of storms, hurricanes and other
economically disruptive events induced by climate
change. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 brought home this
reality, causing damage estimated to be equivalent to
204 per cent of GDP at the time. The country is still
recovering from that event. Grenada is not unique
among small island States around the world in
experiencing those impacts.
The gap in terms of the experience of the reality
of climate change between those Member States
already impacted and all others needs to be urgently
bridged. If we fail to do that, the United Nations itself
will have to bear the consequences of the humanitarian
and environmental crisis resulting from the fact that
some islands will no longer be inhabitable.
When my Prime Minister, the Honourable
Tillman Thomas, addressed the Secretary-General’s
summit on 22 September, he spoke on behalf of the
most vulnerable States. For these 80 or more poor
island and landlocked States, a rise in temperature of
two degrees Celsius is unacceptable, for our safety and
survival will most certainly be at risk. That is why we
insist on a global commitment to ensuring an average
temperature increase of no more than 1.5 degrees
Celsius, accompanied by appropriate midterm targets
of a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by more
than 45 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020 and by more
than 95 per cent by 2050. These reduction levels
respond to our vulnerabilities, and surely, in a United
Nations system to which we all belong, it is
unthinkable that known threats will be allowed to turn
into grave risks.
We must solve the climate change crisis and we
must solve it now. Estimates place the cost of financing
adaptation and mitigation at about 1 per cent of the
industrialized world’s GDP — that is a contribution of
$10,000 for every million dollars of GDP. Given the
moral principle of historical responsibility, this is
affordable by any measure.
With the adoption of the AOSIS Climate Change
Declaration, small island States have said we will not
stand by and watch our islands sink, see our
livelihoods disappear and witness our children made
homeless due to the effects of human-induced climate
change. We again call on the international community
to stand in support of the most vulnerable, so as to
ensure that the targets set forth in the AOSIS Climate
Change Declaration are agreed to in Copenhagen.
Grenada will continue to play its part in highlighting
the needs of the most vulnerable while advocating for
the strengthening of their capacity for resilience. While
it continues to chair AOSIS, Grenada will always
advocate for sustainable development goals as well as
for agreements in the Copenhagen negotiations that are
commensurate to the level of the threat.
The financial and economic crises continue to
undermine economies worldwide. The green shoots of
recovery need to blossom everywhere. Grenada
continues to insist, as our Prime Minister Tillman
Thomas stated at the June summit on the crisis, that the
global financial and economic architecture needs
fundamental and far-reaching reforms (see
A/CONF.214/PV.1). Changes are needed in its rules,
regulations and governance in order to facilitate the
effective participation of small economies, which
suffer the effects of the crises harder and longer. Here,
we wish to echo the call for reform of the international
financial institutions, particularly the call for a review
of the policy conditions attached to lending by the
International Monetary Fund.
Grenada continues to pursue sustainable
economic development and prosperity for our people,
as they show resilience to economic setbacks. A study
by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations shows that Latin America and the Caribbean
was the most successful region before the surge in food
prices in 2008. That affirms our efforts.
However, another study showed that in times of
crisis, social spending does not favour the poor and
development goals are stymied. This is our fear, and it
is also our reality. That is why the Government
introduced a package of measures, greatly supported by
financing from the Trinidad and Tobago Petroleum
Fund, which has begun to lay the basis for developing
a low-carbon and rights-based economic development
model. In this regard, we wish to thank the
Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
for its continued assistance to Grenada and to the
Caribbean region through its contribution to this Fund.
We are also grateful for the Petrocaribe agreement with
the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela, through which several Caribbean countries
are able to purchase oil on softer terms.
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Grenada has put in place strategic initiatives that
include revitalizing the agricultural sector, increasing
labour productivity, diversifying the export-services
sector, strengthening the national investment
environment and modernizing our tax system. In
implementing those initiatives, we seek partnerships
with the international community and the United
Nations system.
Trade continues to be of major importance to
Grenada. We are experiencing severe setbacks from the
loss of preferential treatment in agricultural markets.
We are among the smallest and most open markets in
the world. And yet larger countries contest whatever
benefits we receive to offset the disadvantages of our
small economic size, which are compounded by high
transportation cost and energy prices.
Grenada is pleased that the United Nations
system continues to pursue economic growth and
development. We support the perspective that any
outcome in Copenhagen must be a development
outcome, for each is connected to the other. We urge
support for meeting the Millennium Development
Goals. We have made progress by achieving 80 per
cent primary school enrolment, by reducing violence
against women and by scaling up access to
antiretroviral drugs for persons living with HIV/AIDS.
All the same, Grenada is striving to achieve a
faster rate of poverty eradication. That goal, however,
is hampered by the drop in revenue caused by the
economic downturn and by our heavy debt burden,
which now stands at 107 per cent of GDP. That is why
we add our voice to the call for a review of the criteria
for determining middle-income status. For while we
welcome efforts to assist highly indebted poor
countries, States such as Grenada that are currently
referred to as highly indebted middle-income countries
deserve special attention.
The Government of Grenada favours peace and
reconciliation, aspiring to bring people together to
work for a common good. From that platform we
pursue true partnership for development, beginning
with the private sector, trade unions and civil society.
Together, then, as one nation, we face the international
community.
Development is important in its own right. It also
serves as a guarantor for peace and security. We urge
the United Nations to continue its efforts in
peacebuilding and peacekeeping. My country continues
to support those efforts in the Caribbean region, to
which we have contributed a small number of officers.
We welcome the reopening of the office of the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Barbados
to serve the eastern Caribbean region, and we highlight
the need for more intervention to stop drug trafficking.
In our region, the proliferation of small arms is as
lethal as nuclear weapons. So while we welcome the
unanimously adopted Security Council resolution
1887 (2009) on nuclear disarmament, shepherded by
President Obama, we in the Caribbean call for an
agreement on the small arms trade.
Grenada again calls the Assembly’s attention to
the need to ensure the protection of the Caribbean Sea.
The States of the Caribbean Community and members
of the Association of Caribbean States depend on the
tremendous benefits from the pristine waters of the
Caribbean Sea. Yet those ocean-based resources are
threatened by the trans-shipment of nuclear and other
hazardous waste materials through our waters. We look
to the General Assembly to strengthen the resolution
on this issue and to ensure that the threat is removed as
soon as possible.
In what United States President Barack Obama
calls the new era of engagement, we believe that we
face three major undertakings. The first is to respond to
whatever threatens us at a level commensurate to the
threat; second, to strengthen the institutional capacity
of the United Nations to enable it to respond; and third,
the sacredness of this grand institution to inspire
humanity.
In this endeavour, Grenada is guided by its
national values, the principles of the Charter of the
United Nations and its participation in the hemispheric
system and the Caribbean regional integration process.
Consequently, we reject the removal of the duly elected
head of State in Honduras and call for the immediate
restoration of President José Manuel Zelaya to the
position to which he was legitimately elected.
The maintenance of the 40-year United States
embargo against Cuba and the failure to bring into
being a homeland and State for the Palestinian people,
despite numerous United Nations resolutions on both
issues, remain of deep concern, for they violate the
spirit and letter of international law, on which this
Organization is founded. We join the entire Caribbean
community in calling for an end to the United States
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embargo against Cuba and urge the normalization of
relations between the two countries. We call for a
sincere engagement to resolve the long-standing
Palestinian-Israeli and wider Middle East conflict.
Resolution of those entrenched conflicts will generate
the momentum needed for resolving similar conflicts in
other regions in Africa and elsewhere.
The United Nations plays a critical role in every
facet of global affairs. That is its strength. To become
more effective, the Organization must necessarily
become stronger, and that is why the resolution on
system-wide coherence is timely and has our support.
Likewise, the reform of the Security Council must not
be put off for another 16 years. Reform must mean
greater democratization by removing the veto,
enlarging permanent and non-permanent categories and
making operating rules and procedures transparent.
Grenada is proud to continue playing its role at
the United Nations. We support the pursuit of
international peace and security, the rule of law and the
fight against terrorism and for the eradication of
poverty and the promotion of human rights. We support
the agenda of the Non-Aligned Movement, and the
Group of 77 and China. We support the just ambitions
of Africa, and we proudly support the initiative of the
Government of South Africa to mark and celebrate,
across the globe, 18 July as Nelson Mandela Day, a day
of selfless giving.
We welcome the United Nations support for the
initiative to establish the permanent memorial to
honour the victims of slavery and the transatlantic
slave trade: lest we forget. That memorial is addressed
to all humanity so that we may draw the lessons of
yesteryear for our empowerment. We thank all Member
States which have already contributed, and we
encourage others to support the Permanent Memorial
Fund.
Grenada continues to value the role of the United
Nations as the pre-eminent institution for effecting
multilateral diplomacy. We support its ability to ensure
international peace and stability and to accord a voice
to all sovereign States, as enshrined in its Charter. We
have made significant and meaningful progress in
previous sessions of the General Assembly. Let this
sixty-fourth session be another outstanding forward
movement in meeting the most pressing global
challenges of our time.