Marshall Islands, 2014

When the United Nations was

founded nearly 70 years ago, it was created to fulfil the

aspiration that peace and diplomacy could overcome

self-interest and to ensure that, through effective

cooperation, the world could avoid grave security

threats. But the decades since the signing of the Charter

of the United Nations have been marked by nearly as

many failures as successes, and many of those failures

could have been prevented by early action and stronger

political will.

I am particularly concerned today about the recent

events in Ukraine and the rapid spread of violent

terrorism in Syria and Iraq, even though the Pacific

Islands sit halfway around the world, a fragile region

far away from the global super-Powers. The leaders of

nations have in our hands the means either to respond

with alert action or to turn our backs on a growing

danger.

Climate change poses no less of a security threat

to our Pacific shores, and, indeed, to the world. As a

low-lying country, the Marshall Islands has no higher

ground — nowhere to go — and we will not cede an

inch to rising waters. Earlier this week, over 120 world

leaders met in this Hall to signal our political will

and our commitment. No one should take that lightly.

Leaders simply cannot afford to play consensus games

or to squabble.

Yet words and intentions alone do not meet the full

challenge before us. There will be serious emissions

gaps between what the world will do and what needs

to be done to save my nation. Earlier this week, young

poet and mother Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner from the Marshall

Islands stepped onto this very same stage to urge world

leaders to take action. Today, on behalf of the most

vulnerable nations — those at the front line — I ask of

the leaders of the largest nations, the major emitters, in

Kathy’s very same words, to

“take us all along on your ride. We will not slow

you down. We will help you win the most important

race of all, the race to save humanity”.

Like no other global challenge, climate change

requires direct political ownership and eye-to-eye

engagement with leaders. This issue, more than any

other, will define the Secretary-General’s legacy as

leader of these united nations. I urge him not only to

continue to show his commendable personal leadership,

but also to use his good offices to help find creative

political solutions.

Everyone — large and small, rich and poor — must

and will take strong action on emissions. In that regard,

the Republic of the Marshall Islands strongly supports

the Federated States of Micronesia, the United States

of America, and many other nations in urging a rapid

global phase-down of hydrofluorocarbon gases under

the Montreal Protocol. I will personally attend the Paris

climate conference next December, so that my voice

and that of my people can be heard.

Unlike many other fights, the huge global fight to

address climate change is also a personal one for me.

It starts in my own backyard, with my own seawall,

built with my own hands, to push back rising waters,

save my own future and the future of my children

and grandchildren. But that is not enough. We face a

challenge that is nearly beyond belief. As with so many

other moments in the history of the United Nations, we

have to ask whether leaders will respond to the climate

threat with courage. Or will some nations, including

some close friends of the Pacific Islands, slide back in

their efforts, bury their heads in the sand and ignore an

obvious climate reality? I hope and expect that at the

coming Group of Twenty meeting later this year, the

world’s largest economies will address climate change

and the economic consequences of inaction. The Pacific

island countries demand no less.

Last month, nations around the world gathered in

Apia for the third international conference on small

island developing States. As hosts of the conference,

the Government and people of Samoa showed the world

true Pacific hospitality. As we have for decades, Pacific

leaders have spoken firmly — in last year’s Majuro

Declaration for Climate Leadership, in this year’s Palau

Declaration on “The Ocean: Life and Future”, and again

in the Small Island Developing States Accelerated

Modalities of Action (SAMOA Pathway).

Our development needs are beyond urgent and

must not to be put off for yet another year. While

the SAMOA Pathway charts a course forward for

international partnership with small islands, there is

too often a mismatch between our national structures

and complicated sources of assistance. It is my hope

and expectation that the major announcements and

partnerships from the Samoa Summit will not lose

momentum because of poor connections in the

delivery channels. Our needs are often modest, but

the trickle-down of international assistance and

global development somehow fails to reach our local

communities and to meet our unique challenges.

In the follow-up to the Samoa meeting, starting

this year I urge the Secretary-General, the international

system and United Nations agencies to start thinking

seriously about how to work more effectively with

our unique challenges as island nations. As Member

States design a post-2015 development agenda, it is

important that we focus on a strong outcome that has

the flexibility to accommodate the unique character

of each nation. We cannot measure progress without

specific benchmarks, but as a small nation we fear that

having so many ambitions can be equivalent to having

none at all. The answer is not to be isolated within a

separate, unconnected island strategy, but rather to

build the flexibility needed for so many nations to act

as one.

I stand firm with my fellow Pacific leaders and

nations around the world who have urged that there

be a United Nations sustainable development goal on

oceans. I am puzzled as to why some nations close their

eyes to two thirds of the world’s surface, pretending

that the world’s vast blue waters somehow do not exist.

The Pacific Ocean and its rich fisheries are our lifeline.

We are the custodians of our own vast resources on

behalf of future generations.

We could introduce a step change in the world’s

sustainable fisheries and play our own role to address

global food security. Distant-water fishing nations must

engage us as true development partners and work with

us to change the focus beyond their immediate national

industry and towards a global responsibility. Recent

progress on sustainable fisheries has become the

defining story of the Pacific — it is our empowerment

and our future. The oceans are an equally valuable

resource for alternate sustainable energy, including

ocean thermal energy conversion.

Everyone should participate on the international

stage. The Republic of the Marshall Islands supports

Taiwan’s meaningful participation in United Nations

specialized agencies and mechanisms, including

the World Health Organization, the International

Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well

as in key regional economic integration mechanisms.

Furthermore, I call for Taiwan’s involvement in the

post-2015 development agenda and urge recognition

of the important assistance provided to my country

in health, education and energy. The Marshall Islands

welcomes Taiwan’s efforts to reduce cross-Strait

tensions and urges States Members of the United

Nations to recognize and encourage such progress.

As a former United Nations Trust Territory, the

Republic of the Marshall Islands has a unique legacy,

shared by only a very few in this Hall. It was the United

Nations that helped set us on a path to independence, but

it was also the United Nations that explicitly authorized

the 67 nuclear tests conducted in our nation between

1946 and 1958. Our own history bears the burden and

the contemporary impacts of those tests. Our suffering

could have been prevented by the United Nations — if

only its Members had listened. Like many other nations,

the Republic of the Marshall Islands believes that

awareness of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear

weapons must underpin all approaches and efforts

towards nuclear disarmament.

Those facts speak for themselves and were

recognized two years ago by the United Nations Special

Rapporteur. We look forward to addressing those issues

further during our participation in the Human Rights

Council universal periodic review next year. For the

survival of humanity it is essential that nuclear weapons

are never used again, under any circumstances. The

universal way to accomplish that is through the total

elimination of such weapons. It should be our collective

goal as the United Nations to not only stop the spread

of nuclear weapons, but also to pursue the peace and

security of a world without them.

This year, I look forward to a United Nations that

better recognizes the true global challenges of today

and moves beyond old political cobwebs into our

dynamic century.