I am indeed honoured to address
this body on behalf of the people of Kiribati, but let me
start by congratulating Mr. Ali Treki on his assumption
of the presidency of the General Assembly at this
session. The tasks ahead of him and indeed ahead of us
all are challenging. I am confident, however, that with
cooperative efforts and commitment from all of us and
with the President’s able leadership of this session, we
should be able to rise to the challenge before us. I also
take the opportunity to thank the President’s
predecessor, Mr. D’Escoto Brockmann, for his
commendable leadership during the previous session.
Every year, we gather in this Hall to deliberate on
the daunting challenges that continue to confront us as
citizens of the international community. We gather as
leaders to find solutions to these challenges that will
ensure the survival of humanity not just today but
tomorrow and beyond.
Climate change is indeed the greatest moral
challenge to humanity in our time, and I fear that our
children and grandchildren will look back and ask us
the question: “How is it that they knew what they knew
yet they did so little?” We simply cannot afford the
consequences of inaction. The people of my country
are already feeling the impacts of climate change,
which will only worsen over time. We, together with
those of other low-lying States, will become victims of
climate change.
I have been advocating a combination of
pragmatic adaptation strategies for my people. It is our
overwhelming desire to maintain our homeland and our
sovereignty. However, with the inevitable decline in
the ability of our islands to support life — let alone
increasing populations — due to rising sea levels, we
must also provide opportunities for those of our people
who wish to migrate to be able to do so on merit and
with dignity. Our approaches will be time-relevant,
responding to the different levels of threat and impacts
of climate change on our islands and our people as
time goes by.
We expect greenhouse gas emitters to take
appropriate action to mitigate these negative effects.
We ask for assistance with our adaptation efforts and
we ask those who might need our labour to be able to
open their doors. It is important to stress that these
options are not mutually exclusive.
The President returned to the Chair.
Our relocation strategy requires the support of the
international community. On previous occasions, I
have referred to existing initiatives with our regional
development partners, and I wish to say again that I am
grateful to the Governments of New Zealand and
Australia for their support through the Pacific Access
Category scheme, the Kiribati Australia Nursing
Initiative and the Australia-Pacific Technical College
programme. These are models that we believe can be
implemented more broadly as a win-win option for all
concerned. Pacific leaders have agreed to work
together to address climate change through the 2008
Niue Declaration on Climate Change.
Internationally, the declaration adopted by
Alliance of Small Island States leaders a few days ago
outlines the issues of importance to small island
developing States and calls for action on climate
change, particularly leading up to Copenhagen.
Resolution 63/281 on climate change and its possible
security implications is a landmark decision of the
General Assembly that acknowledges the link between
climate change and security. I commend our Pacific
ambassadors in New York for initiating and driving
that resolution, and I thank the sponsors for their
support.
I appreciate that reaching consensus in
Copenhagen will not be an easy task, but I do believe
that it is possible and that it is imperative that we do
so. If we can mobilize trillions of dollars to address the
challenges of the global economic crisis, then we must
be equally capable of taking the action necessary to
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deal with the challenges of the global environment.
Over the past few days, I have been deeply heartened
to see leaders’ strong commitment to tackling this
common challenge together, to hear leaders resolve to
look beyond national interests and focus on the global
interest, and by their understanding of the predicament
of those on the front line of climate change.
To be able to see leaders’ strong determination to
seal the deal in Copenhagen — a deal that, among
other things, will address the plight of the most
vulnerable — has given me hope and restored my faith
in humanity and in the relevance of our global
community and our global leadership. I take this
opportunity to strongly commend the Secretary-
General for his initiative in organizing the high-level
Summit on Climate Change. That Summit provided us
with the opportunity as leaders to talk face to face and
to agree on a way forward for the climate change
negotiations. I also thank my fellow leaders for their
understanding, compassion and political will
collectively to address this crisis and its impacts.
It is now absolutely necessary that we capitalize
on this collective political will. We must direct our
negotiators to act accordingly to ensure that our
common resolve as leaders is in fact given effect. I
know that we will not be able to agree on all issues, but
at the same time I am sure there are some fundamental
issues that we cannot afford not to agree on. Let us not
waste any more time on diplomatic talk, language,
drafting of amendments, posturing and empty
platitudes. We know what needs to be done. It has been
called many things — a new world order, the grand
bargain, a new green deal — but Copenhagen gives us
the opportunity to enter into a global compact for
action on climate change between developed and
developing countries, North and South, East and West.
This might be our last chance. If we do not act now,
who the hell is going to do it?
We have declared the Phoenix Islands Protected
Area (PIPA), the largest marine protected area in the
world, covering more than 400,000 square kilometres
of ocean area. It constitutes something like 11 per cent
of our exclusive economic zone. PIPA is a collective
partnership between my Government, Conservation
International and New England Aquarium. The
preservation of the Phoenix Islands and the
surrounding ocean is our gift, our statement to
humanity, in the face of climate change. It is our
contribution to international efforts to significantly
reduce biodiversity loss by the year 2010. Even now as
we confront the possibility that our islands will become
uninhabitable within this century due to rising sea
levels, we recognize the value of protecting something
that we firmly believe to be the common heritage of all
mankind.
We are indeed encouraged to see the emergence
of ocean conservation and management initiatives in
the Pacific. Such initiatives include the Micronesia
Challenge, the Coral Triangle Initiative and the Nauru
Agreement. Kiribati and the Pacific are committed to
the sustainable conservation and management of its
oceans. At the Pacific Islands Forum in Australia last
month, the leaders of the Pacific adopted the Pacific
Oceanscape initiative, aimed at promoting
collaboration and exchanges between marine protected
areas in the region and with other partners. We call for
support for this initiative from the international
community.
The impacts of the climate crisis, the
international financial crisis and the food and energy
crisis have ended our efforts to achieve sustainable
development and our way forward towards achieving
the Millennium Development Goals. The particular
economic and environment vulnerability of Kiribati as
a small island developing State should be taken into
account when considering us for graduation from least
developed country status. Assistance provided to the
least developed countries helps us at this point in time
in our efforts to address challenges we face as a nation.
To lose that assistance would be detrimental to our
efforts and to the livelihood of our people. We reiterate
our call to the United Nations to reconsider the listing
for the graduation of Kiribati and other countries in the
Pacific.
On the issue of global governance, the United
Nations is undergoing change to adapt to the realities
of our time. It must maintain its relevance if it is to
address the security challenges that the world continues
to face. We believe that the United Nations should be
an inclusive Organization, particularly for States such
as Taiwan that make a contribution to world harmony
and have demonstrated time and again their willingness
and ability to contribute positively to international
cooperative efforts. Taiwan has demonstrated its
commitment to international peace and security
through its contributions to national, regional and
international development programmes. It is only fair
and fitting, therefore, that Taiwan should be allowed to
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participate meaningfully in meetings and activities of
the United Nations organs. Given the impact of climate
change and the demands of aviation safety and security
on its development and the well-being of its people, we
now appeal for the meaningful participation of Taiwan
in the work and activities of the International Civil
Aviation Organization and the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In concluding, in the face of the common
challenges facing the global community, it is
encouraging to hear leaders call for a new global order
in which our interests as fellow citizens of the planet
override our national interests, particularly where
global human security and lives are under serious
threat. This goal reaffirms the principle of collective
responsibility for the common challenges that we face.
The United Nations will and must continue to
play a significant role in the new world order,
particularly in mobilizing the political will and the
necessary action and resources required to implement
it. Copenhagen will be the test of the political will and
commitment that we have declared over the past few
days as leaders. It will determine the fate of the most
vulnerable and eventually the whole of humanity.