UN Security Council: Speech by Papua New Guinea Ambassador on Behalf of Small Island Developing States
On behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum Small Island Developing States — Fiji, Nauru, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and my own country — I would like to thank you, Madam President, and your delegation for giving us the opportunity to speak at this very important debate in the Security Council.
The Pacific island countries are already experiencing the effects of climate change, and they represent some of the most vulnerable communities in the world. According to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Pacific island countries are facing extreme risks to their survival as nations. Many islands are not more than a few metres above sea level. As wave actions are
exponentially linked to sea level, an increase of half a metre in sea level would completely inundate these island States, putting at risk the survival of their human populations.
Climate change is also expected to increase the intensity of tropical cyclones. While the evidence is not as clear in this case, the pattern of tropical storms seen in the last few years is cause for deep concern. Prior to 1985, for example, the Cook Islands were considered to be out of the main cyclone belt and could expect a serious cyclone approximately every 20 years. This has changed. Most notably, there were five cyclones within one month — in February and March of 2005 — three of which were classified Category 5 as they passed through Cook Islands waters. While these recent cyclones caused damage equal to 10 per cent of the Government’s annual budget, destroyed 75 per cent of homes on the island of Pukapuka and caused emotional distress, no lives were lost, due to activation of
warning systems and preparedness by the general public. In 2004, the island of Niue was hit by Cyclone Heta, with the ocean rising over the 30-metre-high cliffs, causing two deaths and making 20 per cent of the population homeless. All told, Heta caused economic damages equivalent to 200 years of exports.
The country’s only museum lost 90 per cent of its collection.
The king tides that have struck Tuvalu and Kiribati in recent years are further dramatic examples of how climate change will affect our communities. Wells and agriculture were poisoned by sea water, house foundations undermined and graves exposed. Those are just some of impacts that have been observed in our region. Those are dramatic events, and pose a significant threat to peace and security in the Pacific, as the people may have to abandon their traditional lands, their homes and possibly their nations.
Climate change has several other related impacts. Vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, are increasing their range upland in Papua New Guinea, and the incidence of dengue fever was especially high this year in the Pacific in general. A World Bank study on climate change and health found that a dengue epidemic in Fiji in 1998 cost the country about $3 million to $6 million. The World Bank also estimated that the economic costs of a dengue epidemic in Kiribati would be beyond the coping capacity of that country.
Climate change is also going to have an impact on economic activities in the region. The 1997-1998 El Niño event saw a significant westward shift of major tuna stocks, making some of our economies and dinner tables suffer. That temporary warming of the Western Pacific during the El Niño-Southern
Oscillation is a harbinger of things to come should the seas permanently rise in surface temperature. Deteriorating coral reefs, the nurseries for certain fish stocks, are being severely damaged by warming waters, coral bleaching and ocean acidification. We fear that there will be a major decline fish stocks as a result. We also have to consider the overall issue of the sovereignty of our current exclusive economic zones under climate change scenarios, the right to fish in those waters, and our ability to patrol and control them.
Climate change, climate variability and sea-level rise are therefore not just environmental concerns, but also economic, social and political issues for Pacific island countries. They strike at the very heart of our existence. The impacts, and in particular the related economic and social shocks, pose serious political and national financial management issues for Pacific island countries. Climate change, climate variability and sealevel rise adversely affect gross domestic product, balance of payments, budget deficits, foreign debt, unemployment and living standards.
Therefore, climate change is undermining the very basis for the existence of 12 independent Pacific island countries, as well as seven Pacific island territories. Climate change is an overarching threat, and all of its impacts are and will be detrimental to us. We know and understand many of the impacts, but there is still much more knowledge that is necessary. We also need to ensure that our communities are well briefed on those impacts and that they are empowered with the capacity to plan for mitigation and adaptation. Our Governments will establish overall climate change policy, but it is the communities that will have to agree to and implement appropriate measures.
We in the Pacific islands are not standing idly by. Together with our development partners, some steps are being taken. For example, as a means of adapting to present climate variability and climate change, in 2006 the village of Lateu in Vanuatu was relocated further inland in order to avoid storm surges, frequent inundation, coastal erosion and flooding. The Canadian Government funded the relocation, and the new settlement has been made more resilient through improved water storage, new agricultural practices and better-constructed houses, but many Pacific communities have no higher ground to move to. Moreover, most of our economic activities — such as tourism, shipping and infrastructure — are located in the coastal zones. Even in the higher islands, there are limits to what can be physically moved. There are also limits to what our Governments can afford.
In some areas of the Cook Islands, such as Manihiki Atoll, where 3 per cent of the island’s population was killed by eight-metre waves washing over the island during cyclone Martin in 1997, more concrete preparedness or adaptation measures are required. That is sensible from a risk-management perspective, and through projects such as the Global Environment Facility and the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change, such things as cyclone shelters and communications equipment, as well as the incorporation of climate proofing, where possible, in infrastructure design, will be implemented in the Pacific in the coming years.
Individuals and communities should be empowered to adapt by ensuring that they possess a water tank to better deal with drought or floods, allowing setbacks or building on poles if homes are in coastal areas. Risk assessments to see which communities are vulnerable, and taking steps to address those risks, are essential.
Our Pacific ancestors living on those islands and voyaging across the Pacific dealt with a great deal of climate variability and adapted to new environments. They often did so by learning and understanding the natural system, using existing traditional knowledge, or else by sailing on to new islands.
Traditional knowledge in the region is passed on verbally and is particularly important for increasing understanding and awareness of climate risks at the community level and in the local language. Traditional knowledge by necessity fills a gap in small islands, where pure science data collection is sparse. In terms of managing climate risks, our traditional leaders have clear roles to play in our risk-management programmes, in mobilizing community response, and in increasing ecosystem resilience through indirect methods, such as defining traditional marine protected or no-harvest areas for reefs that are vulnerable to sealevel rise, coral bleaching, and run-off sedimentation.
Many of our island communities have begun strengthening the resilience of natural systems in that manner in order to protect themselves against waves. Coral reefs and mangroves are the first line of defence against storm surges and erosion, and those are being protected through marine parks and coastal zone management. But coral reefs exist within a very narrow band of temperatures and are very sensitive to seatemperature increases, as shown by the numerous bleaching events in past years. Mangroves, on the other hand, are very sensitive to sea-level changes, and their capacity for inland migration may be obstructed by the settlements they currently protect. Our best protection against extreme climatic events is thus being undermined by climate change.
It has been said that, for the Pacific island countries, all areas affected by climate change are priority areas. In order to build a shared and sufficiently robust understanding of what needs to be done, Pacific island countries see the need for progress in a number of mutually supportive areas. We need to continue to build a stronger and more comprehensive international climate change regime within the Framework Convention on Climate Change that uses the best scientific knowledge and assesses its
implications.
The negotiations on future commitments for the international community as a whole should be based on the following priorities: to give equal priority to adaptation and mitigation; to slow the rate of warming and sea-level rise; to avoid positive climate feedbacks and their destructive consequences; to convince developing countries that industrialized countries are serious about addressing climate change and finding ways to reduce emissions in all countries; to maintain public credibility in the climate Convention; to stop further delays in taking action; to minimize the economic costs to developing countries of preventing dangerous climate change; to stop investment by the developed world in long-lived carbon-intensive capital equipment and infrastructure; to promote a massive worldwide expansion of renewable energy; to provide greater flexibility to future generations; and to send strong signals to industry that climate change is a serious issue and that it needs to find solutions.
Within other multilateral processes, there is also scope for some of those issues to be addressed to increase international cooperation in finding solutions.
All the impacts that I have enumerated are considered in different forums, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
This debate in the Security Council suggests that there are additional avenues for discussing one of the most critical issues for the survival of our Pacific island communities. The Security Council and the General Assembly have accepted the principle of the responsibility to protect. The dangers that small islands and their populations face are no less serious than those faced by nations and peoples threatened by guns and bombs. The effects on our populations are as likely to cause massive dislocations of people as past and present wars. The impacts on social cohesion and identity are as likely to cause resentment, hatred and alienation as any current refugee crisis.
Pacific peoples have inhabited their islands for thousands of years and have rich and vibrant cultures. We are likely to become the victims of a phenomenon to which we have contributed very little and which we can do very little to halt. We are taking action on renewable energy and energy efficiency and in seeking to avoid deforestation, but our primary focus is on Council, charged with protecting human rights and the integrity and security of States, is the paramount international forum available to us. We do not expect the Security Council to get involved in the details of discussions in the Framework Convention on Climate Change, but we do expect the Security Council to keep the matter under continuous review so as to ensure that all countries contribute to solving the climate change problem and that their efforts are commensurate with their resources and capacities. We also expect that the Security Council will review particularly sensitive issues, such as implications to sovereignty and to international legal rights from the loss of land, resources and people.
From UN Security Council Record, 5663rd meeting, April 17, 2007
