A-G CALLS ON CALLS ON UN TO LEAD, SUPPORT EFFORTS TO TACKLE CHALLENGES RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE
‘WE ASK THE SECURITY COUNCIL AND THE WIDER UN FAMILY TO ACCEPT THAT CLIMATE CHANGE INDUCED DISASTERS ARE NOW and will fundamentally challenge institutions of national, regional and global governance’
This is the full speech of the Attorney-General and Minister for Economy and responsible for Climate Change at the at the UN Security Council Open Debate on Addressing the Impacts of Climate-Related Disasters on International Peace and Security on January 25, 2019.
Your Excellency Miguel Vargas, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic, excellencies. Bula vinaka and a very good afternoon to you all.
Iam delighted to be here today to deliver this statement on behalf of the Fijian Prime Minister, Hon. Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama who could not be here due to pressing engagements at home. We thank the Dominican Republic for convening this open debate at the Security Council on the defining challenge of our times – preparing the international community to confront the growing security consequences arising from climate change induced natural disasters. Climate change has transformed our natural world. Extreme weather catastrophes and their frequencies such as major floods, prolonged droughts, record shattering heat waves and super cyclones tell us that the natural world has fundamentally changed. Once in a 100-year extreme weather events are being experienced once every 10 years. The gap between extreme weather events is becoming less and less. And a single extreme weather event like Tropical Cyclone Winston, which Fiji experienced in 2016 and which we are still recovering from, as it wiped off one third of the value of our GDP in one single event, can also take away the steady progress that we have made in achieving the global goals.
The severe consequences of extreme weather patterns in Fiji and across the world has been highlighted repeatedly by our Prime Minister during Fiji’s Presidency of COP23.
Excellencies, relentless sea level rise is a threat multiplier to our economies and societies. In 2014, the Fijian Government relocated its first coastal community to safer ground and subsequently moved another two. Tragically, we are only at the start of this relocation. Another 43 coastal communities will follow. We will manage these relocations as best as we can, but I wanted to take this opportunity to stress to the Security Council that such relocations will not only happen domestically but across borders.
Excellencies, I have highlighted this to you the Security Council not to make any moral point but to tell you that we are too uncomfortably close to a tipping point. We are still in a phase where these relocations both domestically and between our countries can be managed voluntarily as Fiji has offered support to host some of our neighbours. However, very soon, these will become forced migrations on a scale that will place severe stresses on our societies and international arrangements.
Excellencies, climate change is leading to a loss of arable land, is leading to a relocation of the people and this will become even more heightened, is leading to desertification and is leading to food and health security issues and the depletion of our fish stocks and marine resources. It will lead to conflicts.
Of course the effects of climate change, which may be at the moment be more pronounced in some places over others, will nonetheless be a problem that will ultimately affect us all. We are all vulnerable.
The effects of climate change are a threat to everyone, everywhere –– from the disappearing coast lines of Bangladesh, to the scorching heat drying out land across sub-Saharan Africa, to the worsening flooding in low-lying cities in the United States. It’s not just an issue for the Pacific. All of these will exert far greater stress on competing individuals, communities and nation states for increasingly scarce resources.
Extreme weather patterns make our economies and societies more fragile. We have seen time and time again that when economic and social fragility increase, our institutions suffer – they become more open to manipulation by extremists, corruption, international criminal syndicates, and geopolitical opportunists. It makes our borders more porous.
We ask the Security Council and the wider UN family to accept that climate change induced disasters are now and will fundamentally challenge institutions of national, regional and global governance. And we call on the UN to lead and support national and regional efforts to tackle growing security challenges related to climate change.
Excellencies, Fiji has a long and proud tradition of UN Peacekeeping. It is the UN Peacekeeping that has given Fiji great exposure and training. And we thank all the Permanent Members of the Security Council, the United States of America, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom for helping develop our peacekeeping skills. Our Prime Minister has given his go ahead to use this expertise to now develop, what is perhaps the world’s first response unit that is fully capable of responding with speed, agility and knowledge to climate-induced disasters together with peacekeeping. And we acknowledge the assistance by the Australian Government in this respect.
Thank you Excellencies for giving me this opportunity to present Fiji’s perspective. We look forward to continuing to engage with the Security Council to begin to tackle the growing regional and international security consequences of climate change.
Vinaka vakalevu and thank you very much.
We have seen time and time again that when economic and social fragility increase, our institutions suffer – they become more open to manipulation by extremists, corruption, international criminal syndicates, and geopolitical opportunists. It makes our borders more porous. Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum Attorney-General and Minister for Economy and responsible for Climate Change