YouSaid · the spoken record

Gaston Alphonso Browne

lines on the record: 201
first: 2014-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 9
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“As high representatives of our world’s nations gather at this seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly, our peoples would have been right to expect greater achievement of global peace and prosperous development. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Seventy-seven years have passed since the leaders of the world’s big Powers promised the international community that they would save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom. The five victorious nations of the Second World War assigned to themselves permanent membership of the Security Council. They assumed the responsibility to implement the promises of the Charter, not only in their own interests, but also on behalf of the many nations that did not choose them and that had no option but to trust them.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Distinguished delegates, the future we should all want requires the establishment of a new era of multilateralism, based on the premise that the life of every human being matters. And that, in living their lives, every human being should be given the opportunity to prosper — free from intimidation, hunger, malnutrition, disease and war. Our nations — united — should affirm their commitment to that goal and work diligently to achieve it. That is the United Nations we need. Thank you.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“As Alicia Barcena, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has pointed out: “The leaders of the G20 should be in favour of multilateral organizations making loans at favourable interest rates and alleviating the debt of countries that are highly indebted, deferring it or forgiving it. If that does not occur, the payments will be impossible and fiscal space will be compromised. Exceptional measures are required to confront an unprecedented crisis. There will be no progress without international cooperation and solidarity.” This is a statement we endorse in its entirety. The socio-economic sustainability of the region will be compromised without a proactive debt suspension and restructuring and ultimately debt relief.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Even if, these countries all end up in IMF programmes to give them short-term relief, unless there is suspension of debt payments, debt forgiveness and debt rescheduling, they will not recover their economies; they will certainly not achieve the UN sustainable development goals, and their debt stock will be enlarged by the compound interest that will result from unpaid debts. Unfortunately, the economic development they have so far achieved will be reversed with little prospect of recovery. This is not the world we want; proactive financial intervention by the IFI’s is needed now, not tomorrow; tomorrow’s intervention may be too late.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“In addition, we have expanded and upgraded our health facilities to three beds per 1,000 of population and improved our tertiary health care services. All of this has been achieved despite inadequate assistance from the International Financial Institutions, to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on our economy. If this situation continues without an appropriate response from the international community, many countries, like mine, will be unable to pay existing debt and will not qualify for new borrowings.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“I am proud that, despite all the challenges with which we were confronted, Antigua and Barbuda has successfully managed the COVID-19 pandemic, by quickly detecting and treating infected persons and through effective contact tracing to prevent community spread. Antigua and Barbuda has recorded only three deaths since the pandemic started. Presently, we have just one active laboratory confirmed case of COVID-19 infection, despite re-opening our borders on June 1st, to daily commercial flights from North America and Europe, in an attempt to earn some revenues from the vital tourism sector to protect lives and livelihoods. My Government has also invested in modern medical facilities, including a well-equipped Infectious Diseases Centre, manned by trained, qualified and experienced personnel.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“What is worse, with no sympathy for the dire conditions we face, the Paris Club blocked the IMF from considering financial assistance and debt service relief, provided to many others, unless we subject ourselves to a programme that would lead to an increased debt service burden and even more austere conditions for our people than presently exists. That, we cannot do and certainly will not entertain. As our economy weakens, with an insufficient response by the international community for debt rescheduling and access to concessional financing, unemployment and poverty are growing. Nonetheless, the people of my country are moving on with resilience, bravely and resolutely. We reaffirm our commitment to multilateralism, and we are doing our part in tackling COVID-19 within our boundaries and by contributing to multilateral action.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“In our own case, the approach of the Paris Club of official debt holders has been particularly callous; absolutely insensitive during this unprecedented global pandemic. The Paris Club has not found it possible to agree to suspension of debt payments, debt rescheduling, or debt forgiveness, to allow countries like mine an opportunity to cope with the extraordinary challenges confronting us and in which we played no part in creating. Amidst, the circumstances of dwindled revenues and extraordinary expenses, the Paris Club is demanding repayment of decades old delinquent loans that simply cannot be repaid at this time.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Governments have had to expend enormous resources, spending as high as, 8 per cent of GDP, to mitigate the impact of the public health crisis, amid this extraordinary decline in revenues and foreign exchange. In the case of my own small country, we have been denied loans from the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) because of the skewed per capita income criterion, applied by their policy-making Boards. The result has been that, apart from a line of credit from the Inter-American Development Bank, that is yet to be consummated, Antigua and Barbuda has received not one cent from the International Financial Institutions, to help us meet the enormous challenges that have brought much larger countries to their knees.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is forecasting that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Caribbean will contract by 6.9 per cent in 2020, because of the effects of COVID-19 on our economies. This is eroding the gains made by my own country, Antigua and Barbuda where, in January of this year, we were set to achieve over 6.2 per cent growth, in addition to an average growth rate of 5 per cent in the previous six years. As a country, highly dependent on tourism, the closure of borders, the cessation of cruise tourism and the limits on aviation, effectively devastated our economy overnight, resulting not only in serious loss of revenues, but also in sudden and significant loss of jobs.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“The unity of human needs, requires a functional multilateral system that respects the democratic principles of sovereignty, participation and consent; rejecting the bullying doctrine of exclusion, imposition and abuse of economic sanctions. Yet, even though the countries of the Caribbean are among the greatest victims of the profligacy of others, in relation to the creation of Climate Change and its effects; and, although our economies are among the worst impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, in whose creation we played no part; we are denied a voice in international decision-making and we are subjected unfairly to the will of others.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“The poor and the vulnerable are already the first to suffer from the economic impact of COVID-19 and Climate Change, but the rich have not been spared. And narrow nationalist policies that undermine international cooperation will make matters worse, not better. Every nation of the world is a marketplace for others. The chain of supply and sales are global. Countries are now inextricably interlinked for tourism and business by air and sea transportation, and also, by the goods and services we each buy and supply, including in science and technology. No nation, however wealthy, can survive if its markets dwindle and its sources of supply decline. We are all inter-dependent, however large or small.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“If ever there was a time for the nations of the world to jointly confront threats to all of them — the time is now. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought that realization directly in the face of all our nations. It is global in its sweep and universal in its dangers. Not only has it visited a public health emergency on each nation; it has wreaked economic havoc in all of them. The perils of the pandemic loom large across the globe, jumping across the divides of national borders and defying the belief that rich nations can survive, while poorer nations succumb. The pandemic has added to the dangers of Climate Change which is, as pernicious as the COVID-19 pandemic in its reach, and insidious in its impact.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“As this Assembly is held, developing countries — particularly small states — are trapped, in a downward spiral of economic decline and environmental degradation which they did not create, and over which they have no control. There are no trends identifiable today, no programmes, or policies that offer hope of narrowing the gap between rich and poor, let alone to bridge it. What the world is witnessing, is a march by the richest nations away from any obligations to global good. The drums of nationalism are drowning out the cries for global solidarity without which, the world’s peace, progress and prosperity will never be assured, nor will the principles upon which the United Nations organization was founded, ever be satisfied. This is not the future we want. That is not the future we deserve.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“With each of them, mankind made some progress on the path to human equality, environmental safety, and global security. But, despite them, the benefits of wider inclusive international cooperation are now being sacrificed by the powerful, on the altar of attaining their narrower exclusive national advantage. Never before, has the world had such ample technical and financial resources to address the challenges facing all mankind, including the ravages of Climate Change, pandemics, food security, malnutrition, hunger and poverty. The problem is, that these resources are concentrated in the Capitals of a few nations, which have retreated from contributing to meet those challenges and to overcome them for the good of all humanity.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Mr President Secretary-General Distinguished Delegates Happy 75th anniversary Collectively, the member states of these United Nations are failing in our responsibility to our one planet and in our duty to the peoples, of our one world. At each of the past 74 sessions of this General Assembly, many pledges have been made, to make the international community less inequitable; many commitments have been given to lift-up the poor and the vulnerable; and many declarations have been issued to end the scourge of war. Yet, in the 74 years that have passed since the first session of this General Assembly, on 10 January 1946, the world has experienced only brief efforts to deliver these pledges, commitments, and declarations. Those efforts were vital. They made a difference.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“My Government calls on all Governments to return to the rules-based system of international relations, which was meticulously established to settle disputes and resolve conflicts. The rules are there to protect all of us. A world of prosperity will not be sustained without global cooperation, global peace and global justice. In this context, I recall the words of Nelson Mandela, who knew much about working with the enemy — real, perceived or created. He said: “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner”. The world needs partners, not enemies. Our planet and all our peoples depend on it.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“That action follows the same formula that has destabilized Cuba, robbing that country of the possibility of fulfilling its considerable potential to contribute fully to global advancement, peace and security. Why can we not live in peace and harmony? Why can we not resolve our conflicts through diplomacy and dialogue? My Government once again calls on the United States to lift the debilitating sanctions against Cuba and those against Venezuela. It is killing innocent people. We are also troubled by events in the Middle East and the overall heightening of tensions in the world, in which multilateral solutions are being discarded in favour of unilateral action, and even the contemplation of war. The world is not the O.K. Corral, and a gunfight should not decide who wins and who loses.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In fact, significantly, we should note that the International Contact Group on Venezuela, at a meeting on the same day, reaffirmed that the only sustainable solution to the Venezuelan crisis was a political, peaceful and democratic one, excluding the use of force and through credible and transparent presidential elections. Now that position is sensible and in keeping with international law. My Government protests the arrogance inherent in the belief of 16 countries that they have the right to decide for the rest of the world. How can they believe that they can ignore the United Nations, be contemptuous of the Security Council and act to harm a country on a spurious charge of drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime?”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The Treaty is a 72-year-old anachronism that encourages the use of force against a sovereign State, contrary to international law and not within the concept of the legitimate defence set out in Article 51 of our United Nations Charter. Without producing a shred of evidence to support their allegations, those 16 nations have arbitrarily decided to impose sanctions against Venezuela, with the sole intention of regime change. They are doing so against all international standards. We all know that United Nations standards call for non-interference and non-intervention in the affairs of other States.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Unfortunately, among the hardest hit will be small island developing States, with their open and vulnerable economies. So there we go again, suffering from the injustices of the mighty. The international system, which has never been perfect, is now being dangerously weakened. A handful of powerful nations are seeking to violate international norms and the rule of law to advance narrow political agendas — concerned more with getting rid of Governments that they dislike than with advancing human rights, under whose guise they seek cover. We are not stupid; we know exactly what they are doing, and we are watching them. Only this week, 16 countries, a few of them perhaps coerced into participation, maybe by threats or promises, invoked the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance as a weapon against the sovereign nation of Venezuela.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The last time I checked, we live in a democratic world, so those who want to take punitive action against us for speaking out for what is right can do so. But we will stand in any forum and defend the interests of Antigua and Barbuda. My Government is deeply concerned about the trade contention between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Trade wars invariably push up the cost of living for peoples across the world, especially the poor and vulnerable, and, ultimately, they cause the entire global economy to suffer. There are no winners in this. We are already in that spiral. Confrontation instead of dialogue and cooperation is exacerbating risks, eroding confidence and weakening the prospects of global economic growth. There will be no winners if this continues, only losers.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“This, too, is unfair, it is unjust and it is unconscionable. How many times do we have to come here to the United Nations and ask the United States to settle? We want justice. Once again, we urge the United States to respect the decision of the WTO and settle its obligations as soon as possible. Twelve years is too long. Let me make it abundantly clear that our country cannot forgo legally awarded recompense for the trade losses we have suffered as a result of United States action — and we will not. We are not afraid of its might. We are standing on principle. In fact, let me make it clear that we, too, have a duty of care to our people. So, just as how it is protecting its interests, we must also protect our national interests.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“However, we decided not to do so but to negotiate with the United States Government, since the former option would have deprived United States copyright holders of deserved income from their intellectual property, through no fault of their own. We thought that we were doing the sensible thing. But advantage has been taken of our forbearance and our magnanimity. Despite the ruling of the WTO, my small country has not been able to bring the representatives of the United States to the table to settle this arbitration award. This is a typical example of might is right, and of “to whom much is given, much is expected”. The arbitral award due to us has been ignored, while the perennial trade surplus that the United States enjoys with my little country has exceeded $3.53 billion during the past 12 years.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“No evidence is available to contend otherwise. In this connection, my Government is obliged once again to draw to the attention of the Assembly the fact that 15 years ago my country won an arbitration against the United States, the most powerful country in the world, at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The matter was appealed twice, and twice the arbitral award was given in Antigua and Barbuda’s favour. The final award was made 12 years ago, imagine that — 12 years ago. The World Trade Organization gave my country the right to sell United States copyright material on an annual basis, and it did so in order to help us recover the full costs of our trade losses.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Unless that process is stopped and reversed, it is not only Caribbean countries that will suffer, but so too will the developed countries in which the global banks are located. For the Caribbean’s exclusion from the world’s trading system and the resultant economic collapse will create poverty, unemployment, crime, including drug trafficking, underground money-laundering and refugees — all of which will challenge the security of wealthy neighbouring States in this hemisphere. If those countries will not act in our interest, they certainly should act in their own interests. The fire in our house, which we did not start, will inevitably spread to theirs. The time to extinguish it is now. Our small island States could be forgiven for their belief that the cards are being deliberately stacked against them.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Both the Financial Action Task Force and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have assessed and found most of our countries to be fully compliant with rigorous international standards. Yet the process of withdrawing correspondent banking relations continues unabated, thereby threatening to exclude Caribbean countries from the international payment system and de-banking our nations, with the potential to plunge all of them into poverty. Again, that is an inequitable approach. Let me make the point here that correspondent banking is a public global good and a fundamental human right that must be available to all countries and regions.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In addition, climate funding to adapt, mitigate and build resilience should not be subject to any conditionality, but be based exclusively on vulnerability and need. That is what is equitable. Another injustice the Caribbean is confronting is the phenomenon of the withdrawal of correspondent banking relations — in essence, the financial abandonment of our region by banks in the United States and some parts of Europe. That is based primarily on profit motives and the false allegations that our countries are major money-launderers and tax havens, which is simply not so.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Indeed, in the financial services sector, anti-competitive actions have been forced on us by the European Union in the area of taxation, despite the fact that our countries have been compliant with standards set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Further, despite our vulnerabilities as remote islands, confronted with high interest and insurance costs, unsustainable debt and frequent disasters arising from climate change, we are disqualified from access to concessional financing based on a single criterion — per capita income. That cannot be fair. That cannot be just. Today, we reiterate our call for the removal of the per capita income criterion, which precludes vulnerable small island States from accessing much-needed concessional funding.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Similarly, the provision of finance to support mitigation, adaptation and resilience in small States, such as Antigua and Barbuda, is not aid. It is compensation for the damage done to our countries, for the reversals in our economic gains and for the additional money we must spend to counter the further injurious effects of climate change, in which we play little part. My country and others in the Caribbean are intent on promoting economic growth, social development and resilience by internal action. We will do so even as we expect developed countries to meet their obligations. We do not depend on them exclusively. But it seems that every time we achieve a high level of competitiveness with rich regions of the world, they impose arbitrary measures to undermine and shackle us.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“That is why Caribbean countries, in all sectors driven by non-governmental organizations, have urged the relevant European Governments to repair the debilitating socioeconomic conditions, the destruction of resources and the dehumanization and genocide of Caribbean people resulting from the slave trade, slavery and the ravages of colonialism. That is why I take the opportunity of the Assembly to do so again. The relevant European nations should provide reparations, not only because, at last, it would compensate for their development on the backs of our people, but because it is the morally correct thing to do to restore equity and justice. And we should be clear: reparation is not aid and it is not a gift. It is compensation to correct the injustices of the past and restore equity. That is what we want. We want equity.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Whereas most countries have access to cheap funding on the capital markets, needy small island States have had to borrow at commercial rates to fund their development. Where is the justice in that? That is why we have to fight for change. That is why we have to fight for equity. What we want is access to financing on fair and concessionary terms, commensurate with our size and vulnerabilities. That is not too much to ask. We have a proud history of seizing the reins of our independence and sovereignty against all odds. We have done so to develop our countries rapidly after centuries of colonial or hegemonistic exploitation. But we know that our underdevelopment and financial vulnerability were created by centuries of exploitation in slavery and bonded labour for which no compensation was paid.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Antigua and Barbuda is standing up to be counted among those countries that are doing — and will continue to do — all in their power to curb pollution in all its aspects. There is a notion abroad that developing countries, especially small ones, operate on a premise that rich and powerful nations are to be blamed for their problems of underdevelopment and lack of capacity to produce and compete, and that, consequently, we the developing countries live in a state of paralysis, waiting for aid. That notion is extremely flawed; it is very different from reality. Our small nations are not beggars; we are not mendicants. But, where there is injustice, we must fight for justice. Where there is inequity, we must fight for equity.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“President Roosevelt’s summons to every nation to be a good neighbour is more relevant now than it was 86 years ago. In Antigua and Barbuda, we are playing our part. My Government has banned the importation of single-use plastics and is actively transforming our marine environment into a plastic-free one. We are also actively making the transition into alternate energy with intended nationally determined contributions that will make our country carbon neutral by 2040. Earlier this year, we were pleased to host an international concert, the Play it Out concert, in collaboration with the Government of Norway and the former President of the General Assembly, Ms. Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, to heighten global awareness of the harmful effects of plastics on our oceans.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The worst and immediate victims of climate change are small island States, where a history of human exploitation and neglect has left significant numbers of our population poor and without resources to build climate-resilient infrastructure and homes. That is our inheritance but, eventually, climate change will make victims of people who live in the large land masses too, and not only their coastal areas but their hinterlands as well. That process has started already, on every continent and across every border. The only solution to the harmful effects of climate change is to stop the greenhouse-gas emissions. There is no other choice. And that is what the heavy users of fossil fuels must do. They must lead by example to achieve a carbon-neutral world.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In this Hall, in the presence of high representatives of the world’s peoples, I invoke the words of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said, at a time of crisis, in 1933: “In the field of world policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbour, the neighbour who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others, the neighbour who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbours.” There is only one common homeland and one human race. There is no Planet B, or any viable alternative planet on which to live.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We will act to protect lives and safeguard order. But if this matter is left unaddressed by the United Nations, then it will certainly carry the indelible stain of guilt for the catastrophe that will befall us because we failed to act to establish a global framework to manage cross-border climate refugees.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“However, the number of refugees already created by climate change and the potential for greater numbers in future demand that the legal recognition of a refugee includes persons forced to seek refuge outside of their national borders. In this regard, my Government proposes that Member States agree at this Assembly that the matter of climate refugees be taken up in all the appropriate committees to secure an agreed definition of the term “climate refugee”, which could be adopted in international law where it does not now exist. My Government is perfectly aware that this proposal will be resisted by those Governments that deny climate change and are fearful of acknowledging its consequences. Nonetheless, we will put it forward, seeking support from countries that are similarly threatened and from States that recognize the potential threats.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The internally displaced persons forced to leave their homes due to hurricanes in 2017, and also in 2019, were cared for mostly within their own national boundaries. But there were others who had to seek refuge elsewhere — refuge that was not provided within a legal and predictable framework but was offered by other nations in a spirit of generosity and compassion. This is not an acceptable basis for going forward. With the best will in the world, generosity is constrained by capacity, and compassion is tempered by reality. This Assembly should recognize that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which operates under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, contemplates refugees only in the context of conflict and/or political upheaval.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The protection of fossil-fuel economic interests at the expense of climate justice is unfair, unjust and unconscionable. If Governments have lost their moral compass in a world where multilateralism and common interests are being discarded, we must hope that Governments realize nonetheless that global cooperation is still required to preserve national interests. We should remind ourselves of the wisdom of the poet John Donne’s Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and several steps in my Sickness: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Whether they like it or not, refugees from the countries that are decimated by hurricanes will wash up on their shores. It is inescapable.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“However, the activities of a handful of nations are making a mockery of the Convention, which asserts that improving the living conditions of children in every community is crucial, especially in developing countries. The prospects for the world’s children are impaired, and they are being robbed of a bright and prosperous future. That is correct — we are robbing our youth of a bright and prosperous future. I congratulate Ms. Greta Thunberg and all the children she motivated globally, including those in my own country. In fact, I congratulate all those who acted in solidarity on 20 September to warn our Governments to take bold action against climate change. I remind the Assembly that young people are watching and that Governments choosing to turn a deaf ear to them will surely pay a price.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Even then, after a ritual wringing of hands and pledges to act to stop the obliteration of small island States, business may well continue as usual. That is the sad reality. And it is not, of course, a prospect that the Governments and peoples of small States will contemplate for a second, which is why this is pre-eminently a time to speak the truth — the whole truth — frankly and boldly in this Assembly, without fear or favour. The very existence of our small island States and our civilization are imperilled. However, we will not sit idly by in silence. Action is imperative, and we certainly will act now. This year, we mark the thirtieth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The Assembly should take urgent and special note of the special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the impacts of global warming, entitled Global Warming of 1.5°C, and the recent Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. In small island States, we have come to the painful conclusion that 30 or more generations of our people will, year after year, suffer from conditions already created by the harmful greenhouse-gas emissions of a handful of countries. We also know that, if this profligate behaviour does not stop, many of our island States will not last another thousand years. We also fear that the necessary action to halt greenhouse-gas emissions might only come when a few countries and coastal communities are entirely washed away and eliminated from the face of the global map.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Already, these activities are being persistently disrupted, causing our countries to lose revenue and incur large recurring debt to finance both reconstruction and resilience-building. With few exceptions, pledges of assistance, when they have been made, are inadequate and slow to be delivered, if they are delivered at all. Despite all the targets set by climate-change conferences to limit global warming to 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels, every nation on this earth, and all the people within them, should understand that, even if that small level of ambition is achieved, these climate effects will continue for at least a thousand years. That is correct: a thousand years.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The consequences of climate change have become our annual Hiroshima. The effects are as horrific as any battleground and as devastating and long-lasting as the detonation of an atomic bomb. But, in this war that we did not start, that we do not wage and that we do not want, the peoples of small island States have no means to defend themselves and little means to recover. We are simply the hapless victims of those Governments whose destructive climate policies are killing small island States, with brutal storm after brutal storm, each more destructive than the last. The economies of Caribbean small island States are rooted in tourism and agriculture, which are sectors that are very dependent on stable climate conditions.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“It will surprise no one that climate change and its catastrophic consequences are foremost in my mind. As the leader of a small island State, which, two years later, is still suffering the damaging consequences of Hurricane Irma, we know and live the terrible reality of climate change. Those who continue to deny its existence cannot gainsay the massive destruction to property and loss of life that so glaringly stare them in the face year after year. No one can repudiate the awful scenes flashed globally across television screens and through social media of the decimation of the Abaco islands and Grand Bahama in the Bahamas island chain. The lament of the people of the Bahamas, as that entire nation suffered in hopelessness, should echo in the ears of all who feel any compassion for their fellow human beings.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“On behalf of the people of my country, the people of the Caribbean and Pacific islands, the people who live in the eye of storms such as those afflicting the eastern seaboard of the United States, I urge all countries to come to the table of dialogue and to stand by the agreements we have made and the treaties we sign. Our shared planet and our common humanity depend upon it.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Sovereignty and patriotism do not give sanctuary from calamity; disaster befalls the wealthy as well as the poor. That is why we continue to urge for a global policy dialogue that integrates the environment with development and that accepts the fundamental understanding that every country — with no exceptions — must play a meaningful role, within its means, to stop the persistent deterioration of our lives caused by climate change. The problem is global, and it requires a global solution. It requires the commitment of all. What the world needs is a recommitment to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, including a commitment to the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Billions of dollars were pledged, although they were insufficient to meet the costs. More important, unfortunately, less than half of the pledges have been delivered. Reconstruction is far from done; rebuilding lives and livelihoods will challenge us for some time to come. Where is the justice? The Caribbean has been fortunate this year in that we have so far survived the hurricane season. We watched in anguish and with enormous sympathy and empathy the destruction wrought by Hurricane Florence on the Carolinas in the United States. We mourned the loss of lives — a pain we know only too well. What the destruction of the Carolinas this year and the ruin of Caribbean countries last year served to emphasize to us is that borders may separate nations but they do not insulate them from the shared dangers of climate change.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The injury to our countries continues without compensation, causing our economies to decline, creating refugees within our States, scaring away foreign investors, escalating the costs of insurance and rebuilding and increasing the level of our debt. Those are the realities of climate change. Last year’s hurricane season cost the Caribbean region more than $150 billion. To put that in perspective, the overall economy of the 14 States members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) totals $80 billion. That means that the damage to countries within our subregion last year alone was almost twice the size of all our economies combined. Almost a year ago today, a CARICOM-United Nations high-level pledging conference was convened to assist Caribbean countries that were affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)