Papua New Guinea, 2009

It is indeed my

honour and privilege, Mr. President, to bring you, on

behalf of the people and Government of Papua New

Guinea, our warmest greetings and to pledge our

support as you preside over the General Assembly at its

sixty-fourth session. We thank your predecessor, His

Excellency Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, for his

strong leadership during his tenure as President of the

Assembly at its sixty-third session.

We would like to reiterate our support for the

Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the United

Nations agencies such as the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) and UNICEF for

their efforts to enhance the benevolent work they do

for the world and Papua New Guinea.

When God distributed the peoples of the world

everywhere, he wedged in Papua New Guinea, a small

country of 6.5 million people, between the South

Pacific and the South-East Asia. It has been a privilege

that has allowed us to appreciate the peaceful and

colourful people of the Pacific as well as the dynamic

nations of South-East Asia. We may not be a large

country or a country of economic or military power,

but in our own way and from our own standpoint, we

have a right to contribute to the world among other

nations, to collectively approach issues and problems

and to speak out whether in support or in disagreement.

Very recently, on 16 September, we celebrated the

thirty-fourth anniversary of our independence. But an

important achievement for us was the fact that by the

grace of God, we have had an unbroken constitutional

democracy for those 34 years. Our current Prime

Minister, the Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, has

been in Parliament for 41 years. He is the founding

Prime Minister and has been ousted only through a

parliamentary constitutional vote and has returned

three times as Prime Minister, the current term being

his fourth. I am mentioning this because Papua New

Guinea is contributing to democracy in the world.

Through its democratic form of government, in a

nation of over 800 languages and cultures, a people of

diversity can find a way towards harmony and political

acceptance of one another.

We are proud of that achievement, but we are also

mindful of the many critical challenges that lie ahead

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of us as we develop and progress. Many are challenges

that cannot be handled by one individual country —

whether large or small — on its own. The United

Nations must therefore continue to provide the global

forum for all Member States, big and small, powerful

and weak, to come together to address the many global

issues and challenges we face collectively as a human

family. And together we must confront, first, the

continuing threats of climate change and global

warming, the global food crisis now compounded by

the global financial crisis, and the threats of diseases

that know no borders, such as H1N1, HIV/AIDS,

malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, et cetera. Secondly, we

must achieve together the social agenda of the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Papua New Guinea firmly believes that

strengthening international peace and security is

fundamental and is a prerequisite to achieving human

development, progress and prosperity. My country

denounces weapons of mass destruction and is fully

committed to the principles of a world free from

weapons of mass terror. That is attested to by the fact

that we are a State party to the South Pacific Nuclear

Free Zone Treaty and also fully support the Treaty on

the South-East Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.

We are now working earnestly towards early

ratification of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear-

Test-Ban Treaty. We also look forward to contributing

constructively to United Nations peacekeeping

operations. Papua New Guinea therefore welcomes

positive initiatives of the new United States

Government and other like-minded countries to

enhance the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and

encourage disarmament.

A continuing major concern of Papua New

Guinea is the increase in global conflicts heightened by

the illicit trade and use of small arms and light

weapons, which continue to cause untold suffering to

millions of people around the world. The people of

Papua New Guinea are no exception. The global debate

on small arms has focused on curbing their use.

However, the supply side of weapons is never

comprehensively discussed. We therefore support a

proposed arms trade treaty, which is still in

negotiations and which will deal with one of the key

elements of the arms issue.

In Papua New Guinea we have seen the presence

of small arms and light weapons threaten the stability

of communities. My Government prioritized the need

to comprehensively address this issue through

commissioning the 2005 National Gun Summit Report,

which will be implemented soon.

The various global crises of today have had a

disproportionate negative impact on many developing

countries. From falling commodity prices to increases

in food and energy costs, the damages caused and the

costs incurred to redress them have heavily impacted

their development. The impact of the crisis has also

reduced levels of official development assistance

globally and resulted in big shortfalls in the national

budgets of developing countries.

While we appreciate that many countries have

had to assist their economies by massive injections of

capital, we nevertheless support the strong call for

reforms of the international financial architecture to

include major developing countries like China and

India. Such reforms would better reflect today’s global

economic realities and provide effective management

of the global process, which needs to be fair, equitable

and transparent.

At the 2005 World Summit, leaders agreed to a

set of broad reforms to the United Nations. Since then,

the Human Rights Council and the Peacebuilding

Commission have been established. Furthermore, the

concept of the responsibility to protect has received

broad support, with an inclusive process now under

way to better elaborate it.

We support the continuing call for the reform of

the Security Council in both the permanent and

non-permanent membership categories. In this regard,

we support the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations

within the General Assembly, which have seen the

emergence of strong agreement on certain issues.

We note that great strides are being made in

reforming the global gender architecture. We applaud

the strong but cautious consensus reached at the sixty-

third session of the General Assembly to support the

creation of an Under-Secretary-General post to assist in

better management of the various United Nations

entities dealing with the gender issues. We take note of

and commend the work of former Prime Minister of

New Zealand, Her Excellency Helen Clark, as the

UNDP Administrator. We therefore strongly support

the ongoing reform, as the gender issue in its entirety

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remains one of the key policy issues of my

Government.

As a growing democracy in the Pacific, it is my

Government’s desire to see our friends and neighbours

in the Pacific and beyond enjoy freedom and

prosperity. We reaffirm our continuing support for our

Pacific neighbours in their development aspirations.

We feel that on the issue of Fiji we need to continue

dialogue and not to isolate them. We also support the

main thrust of the Pacific Plan and encourage our

Forum dialogue partners to assist with its ongoing

implementation, as we believe it will catalyse the

Pacific region’s development.

The social sector of many of our developing

countries suffers greatly, and the United Nations has

quite rightly set the Millennium Development Goals.

They provide us with one of the greatest opportunities

to leverage our development process. We commend and

strongly support the Secretary-General for his proposal

to convene a high-level session on the MDGs in

September 2010.

Achieving the MDGs remains an integral

development priority of our Government. We are

working to achieve the Goals in close cooperation with

all stakeholders, including civil society and

international development partners such as the United

Nations and its agencies, the Commonwealth, the

Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the South Pacific

Community.

The MDGs have been incorporated into our

Medium-Term Development Strategy, which focuses

on 15 national targets and 67 indicators under the

National Road Map. They are specifically designed for

Papua New Guinea to reflect the nation’s stage of

development. MDG 8 is ongoing through international

cooperation with bilateral and multilateral development

partners.

The Joint MDGs Project was launched in August

2008 and comprises the National MDGs Steering

Committee, made up of representatives of the

Government, the United Nations, academia and civil

society. The Project is mandated to build national

awareness and facilitate a strong data collection and

analysis regime in the country. The Project also serves

as a constituency for the Medium-Term Development

Strategy and the MDGs.

The Government has localized the Paris

Declaration on Aid Effectiveness by reaffirming its

principles in the Kavieng Declaration to foster

collaborative commitments with our development

partners in pursuing the achievement of the MDGs.

Our long-term aim is to grow our economy to such a

level as to allow us to exit from our dependency on aid.

We want to be economically independent; we choose

not to be aid-dependent forever. We want to give aid

and not receive it. Our aim is also to assist others from

the richness of God’s blessings on us.

The Government recognizes that greater and

sustained commitment to implement policies at all

levels is needed to achieve the MDGs. That

commitment will also be supported by ongoing public

sector reforms, especially in relation to delivery of

basic services to our rural majority.

For the MDGs to be achieved, strong and viable

partnerships must exist.

MDG 8 is critical to the achievement of the other

seven Goals. However, all our partnerships must be

underpinned by mutual respect between the partners

and the Government. Some of our key partners include

Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, Japan,

China, the United States, Italy and Austria, along with

many non-governmental organizations, such as the

Clinton Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation, which continue to strongly contribute to

Papua New Guinea’s development.

Climate change has emerged as one of the

greatest crises now facing humanity. The consequences

appear dire, and they are truly global. Such a global

challenge can only be met by a concerted global

response.

In Papua New Guinea today, we see evidence of

climate change in the inundation of coastal areas, an

increase in malaria due to warming in the highlands

region of the country, and especially in the plight of the

people of the Carteret Islands, where sea level has risen

and some 1,200 people have had to be resettled.

We therefore strongly support the recent Alliance

of Small Island States declaration on climate change.

For many small island States to survive, we must strive

to roll back atmospheric carbon concentrations to less

than 350 parts per million and limit temperature rise to

less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Therefore, emissions of

greenhouse gases must peak by 2015 and be followed

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by reductions of 45 per cent by 2020 and 90 per cent

before 2050. Further, we will require healthy and

expanded forest cover and widely available low carbon

technologies, including carbon capture and storage.

In this context, the importance and urgency of

extensive action on reducing emissions from

deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) can

hardly be overstated, and many delegations have

spoken on it. Deforestation continues at an alarming

pace, with around 13 million hectares of the world’s

forests being lost annually — an area the size of

Denmark, Norway and Belgium combined.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC) estimates that deforestation and degradation in

developing countries may contribute to approximately

20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions caused

by humans, while also representing around 30 per cent

of the total cost-effective mitigation potential in the

period up to 2020. Any solution to the problem should

thus attract 20 per cent of any financial or institutional

response.

It is worth stressing that, without rapid and

significant reductions in emissions from deforestation

and forest degradation in developing countries, added

to deep emissions reductions by rich countries, it may

be impossible to avoid global warming levels that will

prove catastrophic for many vulnerable nations.

Without question, immediate action on REDD+ is a

crucial part of the climate change solution. Under the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change, we will therefore require strong institutional

frameworks for REDD+, including accommodating

different national circumstances and providing for

resource mobilization.

We also recognize the excellent work and

analysis under way via the Informal Working Group on

Interim Finance for REDD. This work estimates that, if

a total of €15 to €25 billion were provided to catalyse

early action from 2010 to 2015, then a 25 per cent

reduction in annual global deforestation rates may be

achieved by around 2015.

Deforestation and degradation in developing

countries are the results of the stark economic need for

local communities to survive that propels the

destruction of forests. How do we keep the trees

standing to sequester carbon?

There is hope. Significantly, early actions for

REDD+ can be achieved at a reasonable cost, while

protecting the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and

local communities, protecting biodiversity, rainfall

patterns and soil quality, and helping countries to adapt

to climate change. To succeed, a REDD+ mechanism

should accommodate countries at different levels of

development through a phased approach. The

agreement should be results-based and incentives-

driven. To achieve that, it must include both a reliable

framework for monitoring, reporting and verification,

and encourage a predictable and sustainable system for

financing.

We must succeed in Copenhagen. If we are to

succeed, rich countries must come forward and take the

lead. Without their collective leadership on emissions

reductions, finance and technology, the Governments

of developing countries will not be able to make a

compelling case at home to get people to allow trees to

be left standing. As a result, 20 per cent of carbon

emissions will continue to flow into the atmosphere.

Therefore, let me be candid. Without a transformative

grand financial bargain in Copenhagen that involves all

nations, there could be no deal.

Let me conclude by repeating that the United

Nations is the forum for agreeing on solutions for

problems and challenges. In times of global crises such

as climate change, financial meltdown and social

sector vulnerabilities, there is also opportunity. Indeed,

there is opportunity here, if we remember that MDG 8

allows us to leverage the greatest asset we have: strong

partnerships between nations, both rich and poor.

More than ever before, we need the political will

of the leading developed and developing countries, for

the sake of the children of the world and for

generations after them. I ask the General Assembly to

please consider this and make a stroke for history.