Tuvalu, 2010

At the dawn of the new

millennium 10 years ago, Tuvalu raised its flag among

those of the States Members of the United Nations here

in New York as a new member of this body. Our

admission was a testimony of hope and opportunity for

our nation’s destiny in the resolve of humankind

through the noble pillars of the United Nations, as

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enshrined in its Charter. I am greatly honoured and

privileged to speak before this body on behalf of the

people and Government of Tuvalu and to convey of the

General Assembly our warmest greetings at this session.

At the outset, we join the high commendations

expressed by previous speakers to you, Sir, on your

election as President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-fifth session, and to your predecessor for his

leadership and dedication during his presidency of the

last session. Let me reassure your Excellency of our

support during your presidency.

As Tuvalu celebrates its thirty-second anniversary

of independence later this week, I take this opportunity

to acknowledge and convey our sincerest thanks and

gratitude to the international community, especially our

traditional development partners and close and new

friends, for their continued support and cooperation in

the pursuit of our development goals. Without their

gesture of understanding, friendship and cooperation,

Tuvalu could not have achieved the progress it has

made to date.

We welcome and support the key priority issues —

such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),

global governance, and the promotion of sustainable

development — that you, Mr. President, clearly

highlighted in your opening address to the sixty-fifth

session. Last week, the General Assembly convened a

High-level Plenary Meeting on the review of the

Millennium Development Goals. In the context of

achieving these Goals, Tuvalu has been reasonably

successful. Our population does not suffer from

extreme poverty or hunger. We have very high

participation rates in primary education. The

participation of women in Tuvalu society is prominent,

although representation in Parliament remains an issue.

Progress in reducing child mortality has been

somewhat slow, and access to adequate health care also

remains an issue.

During the review of the MDGs, there was one

very clear lesson that we learned. This relates to the

fact that while we have made progress in achieving the

MDGs, these successes can be easily and very quickly

reversed by our particular economic and environmental

vulnerability.

In the context of economic vulnerability, the

recent global financial and economic crises continue to

have an enormous adverse effect on Tuvalu’s economy.

For a small island economy like Tuvalu’s, which is

highly reliant and dependent on the import of products

from overseas, the severe impact and consequences of

such crises also continue to be encountered by our

people. One element of that effect was the increased

cost of importing fossil fuel. The cost of fossil-fuel

dependency is having a crippling effect on our national

budget. We are in desperate need of renewable energy

and energy-efficiency technologies that are appropriate

to the unique conditions of Tuvalu.

Last week, we also undertook a review of the

Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of

the Barbados Programme of Action. During the

discussions, we proposed three key outcomes. First, we

need support to help regulate and police illegal,

unreported and unregulated fishing. Secondly, we need

to ensure that our economies are able to recover after

severe weather events. This means that we need a

climate risk insurance mechanism that can draw on

public international finance to underwrite the cost of

premiums and pay-outs. Thirdly, we are seeking proper

acknowledgement of small island developing States’

concerns in the United Nations process and their

recognition as a discrete group within the United

Nations system.

Much has been said and well documented on the

importance and seriousness of climate change,

especially its adverse impact on small island States and

least developed countries like Tuvalu. At the recent

Pacific Island Forum meeting, leaders highlighted

climate change as the greatest threat to the livelihoods,

security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific.

Our leaders further iterated that unsustainable

development and climate change threaten not only the

livelihoods of Pacific peoples but also the islands

themselves and the cultures they nurture.

However, despite our high expectations of

concrete and timely support from the international

community, we were deeply concerned and disappointed

at the outcomes of the Climate Change Conference in

Copenhagen. We sincerely hope that the forthcoming

Conference of the Parties to be held in Cancún later

this year will lead to concrete results and not shallow

promises. In view of the slow and painful progress in

the ongoing negotiations under the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change process,

coupled with the lack of concrete commitments shown

by key greenhouse gas emitting countries, Tuvalu

would like to see three key political commitments

come out of the meeting in Cancún.

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First, we would like to see all the amendments

and rules for the Kyoto Protocol agreed so that such

amendments are ready for ratification to avoid a gap in

the commitment periods. Secondly, we should decide

on a mandate to start negotiations on a new, legally

binding agreement based on all elements of the Bali

Action Plan. Thirdly, we should agree on a set of

decisions that would provide interim steps to

implement measures to be incorporated into the new

legally binding agreement. That should be the bare

minimum we anticipate agreeing upon in Cancún. For

Tuvalu, addressing climate change in a substantive way

is fundamental to our sustainable development and

livelihood. We cannot allow the next conference in

Cancún to be another failure like Copenhagen.

Despite the fact that Tuvalu is one of the small

island developing States and least developed countries

most vulnerable to a wide range of global events, as

alluded to earlier, the United Nations General

Assembly and the Economic and Social Council have

not recognized and taken such vulnerability seriously

into consideration when addressing the question of

graduation from the least developed country category.

We strongly believe that Tuvalu’s economic and

environmental vulnerability cannot be overemphasized

and totally ignored, especially with the ongoing

consequences of climate change and the recent global

crisis. In that regard, we continue to call upon the

United Nations and our development partners to

recognize our vulnerability as a least developed

country in the review of the criteria and the graduation

rule for the graduation of least developed countries.

We could not agree more as to the need and

importance for the General Assembly and Security

Council to be revitalized and reformed, respectively, so

as to enable them to fulfil their mandates and roles in a

more transparent, coherent, efficient and timely

manner. We fully support the ongoing reform

processes, and we believe that small island developing

States should be allocated a seat in the Security Council.

While we applaud and strongly support the

continuing significant role played by the United

Nations as the major peacekeeping body in the

international community, the efforts and progress made

by Taiwan in pursuing peace on both sides of the

Straits needs special recognition and encouragement by

the United Nations. In addition, we strongly believe

that with its active involvement and contributions to

international trade, investment, air transport, finance,

telecommunications technology and environmental

protection, Taiwan deserves to participate more fully as

a member of the World Health Organization and other

United Nations specialized agencies such as the

International Civil Aviation Organization and the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change. Tuvalu therefore urges the United Nations

specialized agencies to accommodate Taiwan’s

meaningful participation in their respective systems

and activities.

In conclusion, let me reiterate and underscore the

importance and seriousness of climate change as a

cross-cutting issue and its adverse impacts, especially

the impact of sea-level rise on a small island

developing State such as Tuvalu. Although we do

acknowledge with profound appreciation the

commitments and generous pledges offered by the

international community and the establishment of

international trust funds specifically earmarked for

climate change, the process of accessing such sources

of funds, let alone their timely disbursement, is

extremely difficult and time consuming for small

countries such as Tuvalu. Therefore, such

commitments without timely actions to deliver

concrete results on the ground may well leave small

and poor countries such as Tuvalu to continue to

shoulder the burden. May God Bless the United

Nations.