Federated States of Micronesia, 2010

Allow

me to congratulate Mr. Deiss on his election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth

session. He has taken on that formidable task at a

crucial period for our United Nations. I assure him of

Micronesia’s full support. I would also like to pay

tribute to his esteemed predecessor for his

distinguished leadership.

Sadly, I wish to begin my statement by

expressing the sincere sympathy of the people and

Government of the Federated States of Micronesia for

the many victims of recent natural disasters

everywhere. Having been victims of natural disasters

ourselves, our hearts go out to the victims of the recent

hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides and floods that are

now occurring on an unprecedented scale and with

increasing frequency and devastating intensity all over

our planet. Overwhelming evidence points to one

common denominator in all those events, and that is

global climate change.

I am deeply honoured to address the General

Assembly, at its sixty-fifth session, for the first time on

behalf of the Federated States of Micronesia. This

Assembly accords Micronesia and the small island

developing States an extraordinary privilege to bring to

the whole world the most pressing issues affecting us

that demand our collective response.

Despite the many years of negotiations to curb its

devastating effects, the climate change crisis continues

to haunt us. The negotiating process has moved along

very slowly, while in stark contrast the rapid increases

in the incidence and severity of environmental hazards

continue to take their toll, with devastating results. I

cannot help but think of the needless human suffering

everywhere, and what the future holds for my country

and the small island developing States if business

continues as usual.

As a small island developing State, Micronesia’s

future is intrinsically linked to the global climate. That

is why we are gravely concerned by the acute

environmental problems related to the extreme

vulnerability of our islands to sea-level rise and

climate change. Those threats are indisputable, and

delays in adopting a comprehensive and legally

binding agreement to avert this global disaster are

without excuse.

In Micronesia, we are deeply disappointed at the

glacial progress in the negotiating sessions and climate

change meetings of the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change. At the same time, we

are growing increasingly alarmed by the prospect of

shrinking ambitions for the meeting in Cancún,

Mexico, later this year. That is not an acceptable

response to a crisis of enormous proportions, certainly

not for Micronesia and not for any of the small island

developing States, who need fast action. This is an

issue of survival for us.

We must find a better response — a genuine

response that supports mitigation and adaptation

measures that will achieve significant reductions in

10-55109 12

greenhouse gas emissions and thus preserve the

integrity of our Earth’s environment and also the

livelihoods of its inhabitants. My island nation and the

small island developing States, for that matter, are not

major contributors to the causes of climate change. All

present know that. But we are nevertheless determined

in our efforts to contribute to finding solutions.

For its part, Micronesia continues to take the lead

to combat climate change by utilizing the opportunities

under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that

Deplete the Ozone Layer. Through the Montreal

Protocol we can solve a big part of the climate change

problem. That is why Micronesia has developed a

proposal with the support of Mauritius, the Marshall

Islands, Seychelles and the Philippines that calls for

the phasing down of the production and use of

hydrofluorocarbons. Under our proposal we will be

able to eliminate one of the greenhouse gases listed

under the Kyoto Protocol, and we are encouraged that

other countries, such as Canada, the United States and

Mexico, already have come forward with similar

proposals.

Frankly, we have been delighted by the interest

shown in our proposal so far, and I commend it to the

Assembly’s attention. Today, I encourage all

delegations to consider supporting it. Our collective

action is imperative if we are to effectively curb and

reverse global warming. That is the kind of

collaboration that I encourage here.

Just as we are delighted by our Montreal Protocol

proposal, we are equally proud of an initiative within

our Pacific region, launched in August by the

Governments of the Republics of the Marshall Islands

and Palau and my own Government at the margins of

the forty-first Pacific Islands Forum meeting in

Vanuatu. This is the Green Energy Micronesia

Initiative, which calls for a 20 per cent improvement in

energy efficiency by suppliers in areas such as

transportation and electric power generation, a 30 per

cent improvement in energy use by end users and a

20 per cent electricity generation through renewable

energy by 2020. As island countries with a total

dependence on fossil fuels for our energy generation, it

is no longer economically, financially and

environmentally sustainable to continue down that

path. We must look towards developing, utilizing and

embracing our renewable sources of energy.

Our prospect for success will remain grim with

our limited capacity and available financial resources.

We encourage and call upon our development partners

and the international community to support our efforts,

including through increased financial support, transfer

of technology and capacity-building.

In our seemingly idyllic settings as island

nations, it may seem to many around the world that we

live an easy life and demand action only from others.

However, the reality is that our island nations are

actively playing our part in maintaining, and promoting

the protection of, our Planet Earth. We accept our

responsibility for conserving the biodiversity of our

islands and waters and for using resources in a

sustainable manner.

That is why Micronesia and our Micronesian

sister nations the Republics of the Marshall Islands and

of Palau, as well as the Territory of Guam and the

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,

continue to promote the Micronesia Challenge to

conserve at least 30 per cent of the near-shore marine

resources and 20 per cent of terrestrial resources across

our Micronesian region by 2020.

Given our individual limitations, we can confront

these challenges only through regional collective

actions. I want to express our utmost gratitude to those

countries and international organizations that continue

to support the Micronesia Challenge and help us

achieve our goals. Being small island countries with

limited resources, we see realistic success in

collaborative partnership with the international

community.

Micronesia will continue to address the

protection of the ocean and its resources. As a Pacific

island country with one of the largest exclusive

economic zones in the Western and Central Pacific

Ocean, we ascribe particular importance to the ocean

and its resources. The ocean has a fundamental and

critical bearing on our food security and economic

future. However, human activities on the planet are

significantly affecting our ocean and can bring about

disastrous consequences for our food security and

sustainable development.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in our

zone remains of great concern, as that abhorrent

practice continues with its sophistication and

multinational criminal operations. We do maintain high

expectations that through the support of the

13 10-55109

international community we can combat that illegal

activity, which threatens the sustainability of our fish

stocks and deprives our people of potential economic

benefits.

To reverse already discernable trends towards the

disappearance of key tuna species that were once

thought inexhaustible, early this year the leaders of the

Pacific countries that are parties to the Nauru

Agreement signed the Koror Declaration, agreeing to

introduce further conservation measures to protect key

tuna stocks. One of the measures agreed to is to close

off additional high-seas areas to purse seine fishing by

vessels licensed to fish our Nauru Agreement waters.

Micronesia is fully committed and will work with

its fellow parties to the Nauru Agreement and the wider

international community to ensure the sustainability of

our tuna resources. We will hold violators accountable

through internationally agreed mechanisms to prevent,

deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated

fishing in our waters and the Western and Central

Pacific Ocean region.

Our oceans and our exclusive economic zones are

getting a great deal of international attention because

of the potential for economic exploitation. We assign

the highest priority to greater economic participation in

all aspects of that exploitation. Increased economic

participation is a major goal for all countries in the

Pacific having considerable marine resources — not

just Micronesia.

However, our participation in the exploitation of

our own marine resources for economic development is

held back by a lack of experience and because much of

our basic infrastructure still needs to be supported and

developed. On the overall scoreboard, the Pacific small

island developing States have not claimed their rightful

share of their own fisheries resources. International

support has to be given to help us build our capacities

not only in negotiating agreements and developing our

fisheries industries but in realizing a greater share of

the benefits from the catch of fish stocks from our own

exclusive economic zone.

In this review year for both the Millennium

Development Goals and the Mauritius Strategy for

Small Island Developing States, we must take full

advantage of both occasions and rise to the challenge

to meet our world’s new and emerging needs.

One of the major preoccupations of the General

Assembly over the last 15 years has been the reform of

the United Nations. I do not need to belabour the issue,

as all present are aware of Micronesia’s long-standing

position, especially in regard to the reform of the

Security Council. For permanent membership, we

reiterate our support for Japan and India from our Asia

and Pacific region. From other regions, Germany and

Brazil also deserve equal consideration. We call for

accelerated efforts to bring the negotiations to a

successful conclusion.

Peace in the Middle East remains elusive, but we

have high hopes that the resumption of direct talks

recently in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere between

the Israelis and the Palestinians will pave the way to a

lasting peace and a final settlement with a two-State

solution. The whole world has a stake in the Middle

East peace process. Micronesia fully supports the peace

process and urges all members of this Assembly to play

a constructive role and work towards an outcome that

brings permanent peace and security to the Middle

East. I want to express my profound gratitude to the

United States, Egypt, Jordan and the Quartet for their

critical roles and leadership in finding a solution to this

formidable challenge. For it to be met, we must

respond with our collective action and support.

I have been most privileged to have this

opportunity to address the Assembly on behalf of my

small island country. As I close my statement, I want to

reassure this Assembly that Micronesia will continue to

do its part as a responsible Member of this

Organization.