Kiribati, 2014

I bring everyone warm greetings

from the people of Kiribati, on whose behalf I am once

again privileged to address this body. In my country we

begin all formal addresses by conferring blessings of

peace and good health on all present, so let me say Kam

na bane ni Mauri.

I echo the sentiments conveyed by previous

speakers in congratulating the President on assuming

the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-

ninth session. I am confident that under his able

stewardship, our Organization will continue its work

towards improving the security and quality of life for

all members of our global community, in particular

the most vulnerable. Let me also take this opportunity

to acknowledge with appreciation the commendable

leadership of his predecessor, Mr. John Ashe, for his

guidance and stewardship over the past year.

I also wish to commend the unwavering commitment

and hard work of our Secretary-General, Mr. Ban

Ki-moon, who has served as an able navigator of our

family’s ship, steering the United Nations through

the diverse and complex realities and the myriad of

challenges facing our peoples and nations around the

world. In particular, I wish to commend his sterling

leadership and demonstrated personal commitment to

the need to focus global attention on those who are most

vulnerable and who are on the front line of the many

major challenges facing us today as a global community.

We meet at a very critical time in the history of

multilateralism. The global community is in the process

of shaping a post-2015 development framework. We

are hearing stronger calls for United Nations reforms,

for reassessing the way we do things in our family of

nations. The membership is calling for a move away

from business as usual and for transformational

changes. We welcome the theme of the sixty-ninth

session — “Delivering on and implementing a

transformative post-2015 development agenda” — as it

aptly captures the call for changes by the membership.

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, we concluded one of

the most successful conferences ever convened by the

Secretary-General on climate change. We applaud the

leadership and the Secretary-General’s very positive

initiative. Those of us on the front line of the impacts

of climate change welcome the renewed focus and the

rallying by the United Nations membership behind the

Secretary-General’s call for ambitious announcements

and commitments. The real challenge, however, is

in being able to translate those commitments and

announcements into action.

Three weeks ago, Samoa hosted the Third

International Conference on Small Island Developing

States. The United Nations and those who attended

declared it a resounding success. We thank our gracious

hosts — the Government and the people of Samoa.

Those very successful conferences signify recognition

by the United Nations and the membership of the need

to highlight the special case of those on the front line

of sustainable development, to refocus global attention

to the prevailing socioeconomic and environmental

challenges that continue to constrain efforts by small

island developing States (SIDS) to achieve sustainable

development. That is particularly pertinent now, as the

international community is in the process of shaping

the post-2015 development agenda.

The Small Island Developing States Accelerated

Modalities of Action provides a clear blueprint of

how the SIDS want to move forward in their efforts

to achieve sustainable development. The real test of

the success of the Samoa Conference, however, is in

the adoption of outcomes into genuine and durable

partnerships that can translate into activities on the

ground that will deliver tangible benefits to our people.

While SIDS heard the plight of some of the most

vulnerable, other United Nations processes are talking

about the graduation of those countries from the least

developed countries category. We believe that there is

a contradiction here. If we as a family of nations do

not act and do not work in partnership with those on

the front line of major challenges, whatever they may

be, then we will have failed in our efforts. I would like

to reiterate our deepest appreciation to the Secretary-

General for his demonstrated commitment and

leadership in focusing the United Nations and global

attention on the plight of the most needy, in alleviating

poverty, addressing the Ebola epidemic, raising the

voices of youth and women and their participation in

development, ending gender-based violence, promoting

peace and security, and acting against climate change

now.

As I have highlighted on numerous occasions

in the past, including earlier this week, the issue

of climate change remains the most single pressing

challenge for us in Kiribati. Climate change is an

existential challenge for low-lying island countries like

mine, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, the Maldives and

Tokelau, and I again call for urgent global action to

help those countries adapt and for international legally

binding commitments to cut greenhouse emissions.

The global community cannot afford to not listen to our

stories and to the plight of our peoples. Our plight is the

plight of the global community, further down the line.

Everyone’s future is on the line.

I have just returned from an Arctic expedition, to

the North Pole — hence, my loss of voice. I am still

overwhelmed today by what I witnessed with my own

eyes. The melting of the massive sheets of ice in the

Arctic region due to climate change will not only have

severe impacts on the lives of people in that region but

will also result in the demise of future generations in

other parts of the globe, in particular our most vulnerable

atoll island nations. It has been an eye-opener for me

to spend time in the past week in polar conditions. It

gave me a wider perspective of the immensity of what

is at stake beyond our own immediate concerns. That

visit to the Arctic region highlighted the stark reality

of the very direct connection between the destruction

of that polar region to what is happening to us in the

equatorial region, and the very unlikely possibility of

ever reversing that process once it has gone so far.

On Tuesday we heard the voice of a very talented

young woman, Ms. Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, a poet from

our part of the world, from the Marshall Islands. Her

voice represents the apprehension, the concern and the

voice of mothers from low-lying countries like ours

who lament what the future holds for their children

and their children’s children. Surely, we as leaders and

the mothers like Kathy and millions of others around

the world share, or should share, the same ultimate

goal — to leave to our children and grandchildren a

future that is better than what we inherited from our

forefathers. We from Kiribati salute Kathy for reaching

out and for touching the hearts of leaders who heard

her speak. May she touch many hearts and move many

more hearts.

The very sad reality is that we are just not on

course to achieve that. It is glaringly obvious that

we need to do things differently. We owe it to those

whom we represent — our people. For us, climate

change is not an event in the future. It is an event that

we are dealing with today. We simply cannot talk of

sustainable development without talking about climate

change. Earlier this week, I appealed to fellow leaders,

and will do so again today, for all of us to work together

against climate change and to move towards binding

international agreements, towards a clean energy

future, a healthier greener future for our children and a

healthier, greener home for our one planet, Earth.

What are we doing? Let us accept full responsibility

for our own development to improve the well-being of

our people into the future. We are determined to achieve

that by finding national solutions to overcome the

enormous development challenges that constrain our

efforts. My Government has mainstreamed sustainable

development principles into our national development

plan, policies and strategies. Climate change and

adaptation measures are integrated into our national

budgeting process and development programmes to

strengthen disaster risk management. We have adopted

an inclusive, whole-of-government and whole-of-nation

approach aimed at addressing climate change impacts

and strengthening our resilience.

Our strategy for migration with dignity is an

investment in the education of our people and upping

the skills of our young population to equip them with

the educational qualifications and employable skills

that will enable them to migrate with dignity to other

countries as a matter of choice and, in the worst-case

scenario, when our islands can no longer sustain human

life.

Last July, along with other frontline low-lying atoll

island States — Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, Maldives

and Tokelau — Kiribati initiated the establishment of

the Coalition of Low-lying Atoll Nations on Climate

Change (CANCC). The Coalition held its inaugural

meeting in Tarawa in July and produced an outcome

document that embraces the Coalition’s goals and

vision for building the resilience of our people in the

face of the challenges of climate change. The initiative

is prompted by the concerns we share regarding the

increasing severity of those challenges and the slow

pace of global action to address them. Our Coalition of

nations continues to support the ongoing negotiations

under the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change, but we also emphasize that urgent

action must be taken now to assist our countries and

all vulnerable communities to adapt to the impacts of

climate change.

The Coalition initiative demonstrates our political

commitment and determination to find innovative

solutions to the threats we face from climate change.

We are looking at building up our low islands and

climate-proofing our infrastructure, and at our

development efforts to prepare and build the resilience

of our people in the face of the challenge.

We cannot do this alone, and we acknowledge the

support of our development partners and regional and

international organizations that have assisted us and

continue to support our efforts to address the challenge

of climate change. However, much more remains to be

done, including making climate-financing facilities

more accessible and flexible, as the solutions and

options for facing this challenge vary from nation to

nation.

The ocean plays a pivotal role in the sustainable

development of my country. Our vision for achieving

sustainable development hinges on the blue

economy — on the conservation and sustainable

management of our marine and ocean resources.

While we in Kiribati have been labelled a small

island developing State, we are in fact a “large ocean”

State that spans an ocean area of 3.5 million square

kilometres. The ocean has been an integral part of

our life since time immemorial. While it now poses a

serious threat to our survival from sea-level rise, it also

provides immense opportunities, not only as a source

of daily sustenance, but also as a means through which

we can realize sustainable development and achieve

livelihoods for our people.

Our exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is one of the

largest in the world and is home to abundant tuna

resources that provide rich fishing grounds for our

distant fishing partners. We estimate that the total

annual landed value of the fisheries industry in our

EEZ is approximately $4 billion. Yet only 5 to 8 per

cent of that comes to us as resource owners, through

licensing fees. We have to ask, where is the equity and

fairness in that?

There is a need to review and restructure the

nature of public and private partnerships in the fishing

industry. A more equitable partnership based on mutual

respect, goodwill, fairness and accountability will go

a long way in providing an enabling environment for

sustainable development.

My Government is working to maximize the returns

from our large fisheries resource through value-adding

fisheries development, including on-shore processing.

Our limited capacity in terms of capital, technical

know-how, a lack of infrastructure, distance from

commercial and trade centres and air and sea transport

challenges stands in the way of our progress towards

that development aspiration. Direct foreign investment

and genuine partnership are therefore a way forward

in that regard. I am confident that such partnership,

forged around an equitable distribution of gains, will

be the development model going forward, with mutual

gains to be made.

Human activities have been responsible for the

accelerated degradation of our global environment, in

the pursuit of short-term economic gains without due

regard to the health of our oceans and our environment.

Never in human history has the health of our oceans

and planet Earth been so challenged. We all have a

shared responsibility and obligation with regard to the

protection of the ocean from further degradation and

the sustainable management of its rich biodiversity.

My country recognizes that shared responsibility

and, in 2008, established the Phoenix Islands Protected

Area (PIPA) in partnership with Conservation

International and the New England Aquarium.

UNESCO has inscribed PIPA on its list of World

Heritage Sites. In January 2015, we will completely

close off the Phoenix Islands Protected Area to all

commercial fishing activity across an area of more than

410,000 square kilometres, representing 11 per cent of

our total EEZ — about the size of the state of California.

PIPA is a rich fishing ground, so its total closure

on 31 December this year will entail loss of much-

needed revenue for Kiribati from fishing licence fees.

For us, it is a major but necessary short-term sacrifice

for the long-term health of our ocean and for sustaining

fish stocks for global food security. It demonstrates

our political commitment to the importance of marine

conservation and the sustainable management of marine

resources. It is our contribution to humankind and the

common good of all.

But the announcement of complete closure of this

vast marine protected area will amount to nothing

without monitoring and enforcement. We have therefore

established a PIPA trust fund to support our national

efforts in managing PIPA and monitoring that vast

marine protected area. We thank those who share our

vision and have contributed to the fund. We encourage

our partners who have not yet done so to join with us in

that massive undertaking.

The challenges we face in the twenty-first century

have taken on a new dimension. It is no longer a fight

to save a species here and a collapsed stock there;

the fight has become larger. It is now about how to

ensure the survival of whole peoples — communities,

villages, cities and nations. Entire ecosystems hang in

the balance, the ecosystems that provide us with the air

we breathe, the water we drink and much of the food we

eat. It is time to view our global development in a whole

new way. It is time to change business as usual. Indeed,

a paradigm shift and transformational development

approaches are necessary, starting from within our own

nations and moving out to regional and international

multilateral processes, institutions and partnerships.

It is high time we recognize that the new challenges

require that we draw on all the resources available to the

global community. Development and global challenges

do not belong to Governments alone. Let us bring in our

youth, our women, civil society, the private sector and

our traditional institutions. Let us be inclusive. Let all

those who have a contribution to make make it.

We welcome the inclusion of Taiwan in the

international processes of the World Health Assembly.

We hope that a similar inclusive approach will prevail

in respect of our other international institutions and the

United Nations processes, where Taiwan and all those

that can participate and contribute meaningfully for the

good of humankind can be brought in to do so.

We join in the broad international condemnation

of criminal extremism and express the hope that such

destabilizing tensions in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region

and elsewhere can be settled through peaceful means.

As distant as we think we are from the epicentres of

such events, they nonetheless impact on us in a very

real way in our part of the world.

In my country, even before the advent of climate

change, the atoll environment was indeed harsh. Life

on the low-lying atoll islands has always been difficult.

We have always worked on the principle of working

together as part of a community on the premise that

there will be some challenges that are larger than us and

need collaboration. The age-old test of our resilience

and our strength as a community is defined by the well-

being of the weakest member of our community. For us,

sustainable development must be inclusive. It requires

sincerity, goodwill, respect and the willingness to move

a little more slowly so as to assist and bring everyone

on board in order to move forward together.

I would like to bring those principles to the United

Nations. The pursuit of sustainable development

and lasting peace and security calls for and requires

sacrifice. It requires inclusiveness. It requires

collective and decisive action. It also requires political

commitment and political leadership from all of us

here, for the time to act is now.

On that note, I leave members with the traditional

blessing: may health, peace and prosperity be with us

all.