Tuvalu, 2013

It is a great honour and

pleasure to participate in the sixty-eighth session of

the General Assembly on behalf of the people and

the Government of Tuvalu. At the outset, I would like

to congratulate the President on his new leadership

responsibilities; he has all the blessings and support

of Tuvalu. I also wish to thank and acknowledge with

profound appreciation the outgoing President and the

continued assistance and support given by Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon, the specialized organizations

and their respective heads and staff. We are particularly

grateful for our membership in the United Nations

following a successful sixty-seventh session.

The new Government of Tuvalu, of which I am

honoured to be Deputy Prime Minister, was elected

two months ago. Just last week, the Government, in

cooperation with development partners, launched a

road map committing to mutual partnerships that will

deliver and make a difference for the people of Tuvalu.

The road map focuses on improving the delivery of vital

basic services, strengthening good governance and

enhancing local capacity to address Tuvalu’s unique

vulnerabilities and respond effectively to the impacts

of climate change.

It is visionary and timely to focus our debate on the

theme of “The post-2015 development agenda: setting

the stage” as we approach the end of a journey called

the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We are

now ready to chart a new path, which we are calling

the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the post-

2015 agenda. And as we do every fall, we have gathered

to reaffirm our spirit for and commitment to a renewed

multilateralism and genuine collective action and to

reflect, assess, address and plan for how to realize the

Charter’s principles of peace, justice, human rights,

social progress and equal opportunity for all.

However, our global efforts cannot be fully universal

until the United Nations pragmatically recognizes the

international contribution that the Republic of China on

Taiwan has made and the responsibility it has undertaken

to achieve the noble goals of the United Nations, as well

as the MDGs and SDGs, thus improving the standards

of living of millions all over the world. The Republic

of China’s significant international participation in

United Nations specialized agencies, including in

the World Health Organization, UNESCO, UNICEF,

the International Civil Aviation Organization, the

International Maritime Organization and the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,

is critical as we collectively advance towards the

post-MDG era and enter the era of the sustainable

development goals.

Tuvalu also fully supports the lifting of the embargo

against Cuba. That will allow the Republic of Cuba to

further consolidate and enhance its cooperation with

small island developing States (SIDS) like Tuvalu.

Looking back at our MDG journey, we have come

across a myriad of crises and challenges, both natural

and man-made. We know where we have come from,

we know our capacities and constraints in facing those

crises and challenges, and we know the direction we are

heading in. We give great attention to how to address

the many persistent and ongoing issues in their entirety

and in their many forms, as we approach the finish line

for the MDGs.

As we make the transition to the SDG stage and the

post-2015 agenda, we take heed of the intrinsic lessons

from the MDGs. First, the United Nations continues to

be a beacon of hope and, through strategic advocacy

and awareness campaigns, the Organization brings the

real issues and current events into the consciousness

of both the public and the membership in order to

propel action and redress. Secondly, partnership is

key to the success of this truly universal Organization.

Working together cooperatively delivers much more

that we can make happen on our own. Cooperation

and collaboration with communities, businesses, think

tanks, churches, philanthropists, regional groupings

and not least each United Nations Member, reaffirms

a true and sustainable union that should constitute the

way forward for the SDGs.

The United Nations Charter should be mirrored in

our national goals and priorities. Our vision for the new

SDGs and post-2015 agenda must reflect a membership

that is striving for the same goals — a world that

embodies peace, not conflicts and terrorism; hope,

not despair; opportunities, jobs and prospects for a

decent life, not unemployment and welfare dependence;

security and freedom, not insecurity and totalitarianism;

equality, not autocracy; unity, not divisiveness; good

governance and leadership, not tyranny; sufficiency,

not poverty; progress, not setbacks and regression; and

empowerment, not constraint.

Let me reflect on Tuvalu’s performance with

respect to the MDGs as the deadline 2015 draws near.

I am pleased to report that Tuvalu has made significant

progress towards the achievement of its MDGs, despite

the impact of the various global financial and economic

crises on its small, vulnerable economy. In the 2012

MDG progress report, Tuvalu was assessed as being

on track with respect to four of the MDGs: primary

education, child mortality, maternal health and global

partnership; as having the potential to achieve three

MDG targets: gender equality, combating HIV/AIDS,

and environmental sustainability; and as being unlikely

to achieve the MDG on poverty.

The attainment of the MDG on poverty is a

formidable challenge for the fourth-smallest country in

the world. Tuvalu is poorly endowed in terms of natural

resources and has almost no productive capacity. Tuvalu

is highly dependent on aid, leasing gratuities and rental

incomes derived from its national assets — air, sea

and its domain — and remittances. We will continue

to seek the invaluable support and cooperation of the

United Nations and the donor community in our pursuit

of attaining the MDG on poverty as we approach 2015.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women

and youth is pursued at all levels of decision-making. In

2012, Tuvalu adopted a family protection bill that aims

at safeguarding our women and girls against sexual and

gender-based violence, domestic violence and rape. The

bill has facilitated access to justice and improved the

provision of services to women and girls who have been

subject to discrimination and violence, whether in the

public or the private sphere.

Tuvalu is also fully committed to the strategic

implementation of the outcomes of the Barbados

Programme of Action and the Mauritius Strategy

for the Further Implementation of the Programme of

Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island

Developing States. As we approach the International

Year of Small Island Developing States, in 2014, and

the third International Conference on Small Island

Developing States in Apia, Samoa, we urge the United

Nations to ensure that SIDS status and SIDS-specific

recognition are truly sanctioned in the Organization’s

bureaucracy. We have seen enough General Assembly

resolutions that address SIDS issues in a vague

and abstract way, and yet the entire United Nations

development agenda includes no specific treatment of

SIDS. The 2014 SIDS Conference must be decisive on

establishing special windows for partnerships on SIDS

that are designed to ensure not only their sustainable

development but also their long-term security and

survival.

Tuvalu appreciates the decision of the Economic

and Social Council to defer consideration of Tuvalu’s

graduation from the least developed country (LDC)

category under the Istanbul Programme of Action for

the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-

2020. That said, however, Tuvalu humbly submits that

while the threshold criteria of LDC graduation — the

human development index, per capita gross national

income and the economic vulnerability index — are

well established, it would simply be irrational and

irresponsible if application of any two of the three

criteria was the only measure of consideration for

graduation. Given Tuvalu’s extreme vulnerability

as a SIDS, we believe that our failure to achieve a

satisfactory EVI level carries more weight for us in

considering our possible graduation from the LDC list.

Climate change and sea-level rise have had dire

consequences for Tuvalu’s situation. Our survival and

security, and our children’s future livelihood, have

been seriously compromised by the international

community’s inaction on climate change. The fifth

assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change, Climate Change 2013: The Physical

Science Basis, has further confirmed to the world the

stark predictions for SIDS like Tuvalu in the wake of

climate change and sea-level rise. The challenge we

put to the Assembly is, What else are we waiting for?

What is the relevance of talking about post-MDGs

and SDGs when the world continues to fail in its duty

and obligations to urgently reduce greenhouse-gas

emissions and provide genuine adaptation? Ensuring

Tuvalu’s long-term security means saving the whole

world.

Climate change is no longer an environmental

or political issue. It is a borderless security issue for

humankind. Everyone must act to urgently reduce

greenhouse-gas emissions and provide adaptation.

Among the papers distributed to the Assembly is the

2013 Pacific Islands Forum Communiqué, which

contains the Majuro Declaration for Climate Leadership,

which Tuvalu strongly supports. Through the Majuro

Declaration, the Pacific island leaders commit their

full responsibility and leadership to making their own

contribution, however minuscule, to global efforts to

cut greenhouse-gas emissions. If we SIDS in the Pacific

can do it, surely others can, too.

The world must save Tuvalu and the SIDS in

order to save the whole planet. We urge perseverance,

with the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol as the primary

international and intergovernmental instruments for

negotiating the global response to climate change.

We call on all parties to work diligently to reach a

legally binding framework for curbing greenhouse-gas

emissions at the upcoming nineteenth session of the

United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Warsaw.

The framework should also include mechanisms

dealing with climate-change-related loss, damages

and insurance for SIDS, and should provide adequate

and accessible financing for adaptation support to

SIDS such as Tuvalu. Tuvalu also applauds and fully

supports the leadership of the Secretary-General and

his commitment to hosting a climate change summit

next year.

For Tuvalu, the climate change issue is

predominantly linked to the oceans. For a nation

surrounded by seas, an ocean SDG is pertinent, for

obvious reasons. Seventy per cent of the planet’s

surface is covered by oceans, which are the cornerstone

of Earth’s life support system. The uncontrolled and

increasing carbonization of our oceans and their

biodiversity are genuine issues of concern and must

be urgently addressed. At the same time, radioactive

spillovers of land-based nuclear wastes into the oceans,

especially those that have followed recent incidents,

must be dealt with properly and prevented from

happening again. Here, the principle that the polluter

pays should be the basis for efforts to clean, mitigate

and prevent contamination of the oceans.

Tuvalu is currently heavily dependent on

imported fuel and petroleum products for electricity

generation and transportation requirements. That will

continue in both the short and medium term. Many

recommendations for alternative energy sources and

technologies, whether solar, wind or wave, have been

proposed but not fully implemented. Our energy sector

has set itself the challenge of becoming 100 per cent

renewable by 2020. We appreciate the support of the

many donors we have had for alternative renewable

sources of energy, assistance with formulating energy

policy and promoting efficient energy sources. Science

and technological capacity in Tuvalu also remain

underdeveloped, and we need relevant and simple

technologies that can be made readily available and

priced effectively, especially for LDCs and SIDS. The

facilitative role of the United Nations as a repository

of such technologies and practices within the

Organization’s networks and websites will prove highly

beneficial.

Finally, as we approach the end of the MDGs

and embrace the SDGs, we must pay attention to

the nations with special needs, the poorest and most

vulnerable, in making every effort to meet the MDGs

and achieve a smooth transition to the SDGs. The scale

of the challenges can be addressed only by reforming

ourselves — the United Nations and each Member

country. Delivering on the future we need and on

our sustainable goals, delivering more and delivering

better, will require increasing doses of great effort

and discipline, perseverance and courage, tolerance

and harmonious coexistence, multilateralism and

interdependence on the part of us, the peoples of the

United Nations.

In a couple of days, Tuvalu will celebrate its thirty-

fifth year of independence. Can we tell our children

and grandchildren a story of continued survival on

our God-given peaceful islands? Or do we have to tell

them that the world, under the United Nations, that

noble body, can no longer save their future because of

climate change and sea-level rise? As with great pride

we celebrate the continuing vibrancy of democracy

and the rule of law, and our political independence in

Tuvalu, we also appeal to the world. Please save Tuvalu

from climate change. Let the world save Tuvalu in order

to save itself.