YouSaid · the spoken record

Coral Pasisi

lines on the record
11
first
2020-07-24
most recent
2020-07-24
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1
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un-security-council

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  1. “I call on the Council to continue to build on and integrate the best available science, modelling and risk assessments into its work. I call on it to coordinate with the many existing efforts already under way across the development, climate change and humanitarian bodies of practice. I call on it to mobilize the necessary capacity and resources and to use its power to rally global ambition to address this issue before it becomes a greater security challenge than any of us can deal with.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  2. “Awful as it is, the coronavirus disease presents an important opportunity to reset, bringing to the fore the importance of healthy, connected and resilient societies. We cannot achieve those goals over the long-term without collective climate action. Key climate events may be delayed, but the climate emergency is not. This effort requires all of us to understand and monitor the implications globally to all people and to be willing to mount a coordinated response. For countries that have contributed very little to global warming but stand to lose so much, it seems a fair ask to have the highest multilateral organ on Earth tasked with global security — the Security Council — to take the time to understand this scenario and to do everything in its power to address it.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  3. “There remains a great dearth of protection policies, resources and information on the status of those situations in the region and how to effectively manage them. Countries, communities and individuals will continue to suffer great loss and damage, both economic and non-economic. Some of our young people, in particular, stand to lose their inherent birthrights of cultural and traditional practice in situ and potentially citizenship. Those are irreplaceable losses. What can the United Nations system and Council do to help? Without a doubt, the most important measure we can take to reduce the threats to island countries in the Pacific and across the world is to stop climate change and reverse it. That requires an ambitious implementation of the Paris Agreement.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  4. “In the absence of ambitious mitigation and adaptation, that could force the displacement and migration of thousands of people and cause huge loss and damage. Close to 60 per cent of our populations live within one kilometre of the ocean, and displacement is already affecting a number of Pacific SIDS and communities in the region. Examples include resettlement within Papua New Guinea of inhabitants from Carteret and other atolls to Bougainville, and between islands — with climate change migrants going from Tuvalu to Niue over the past 10 years or so. Such changes undermine complex and often contested traditional land tenure systems and limited land resources, thus increasing the potential for conflict and fragility.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  5. “That represents $90 million per annum in lost access revenue for all Pacific SIDS combined by 2050, and losses of up to 10 to 15 per cent in total Government revenue for several countries. Those effects could also weaken existing compliance and enforcement arrangements by increasing the potential for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, as monitoring and the imposition of penalties are more difficult in high-seas areas. If left unaddressed, the consequences of those threats could catalyse conflict and instability in island economies. Thirdly, the threats posed by displacement and forced migration already being experienced in our region. Long before land disappears beneath the ocean, it will become greatly degraded and unproductive due to saltwater intrusion, coastal erosion and coral reef degradation.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  6. “The industry employs about 6 to 8 per cent of the labour force, and often comprises a higher percentage of women. Within 15 years, 25 per cent of all fish required for the food security of Pacific island people will need to be supplied by tuna. Climate change is projected to alter the migratory patterns of tuna, moving them further eastwards and up into the high-seas areas. It will also impact the fish stock health and numbers. The latest preliminary modelling and economic analysis under way indicates that 20 per cent of the combined tuna catch currently harvested from the exclusive economic zones of Pacific SIDS, will shift to the high-seas areas by 2050, under RCP 8.5 emissions scenario.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  7. “Secondly, there is a threat to the blue economy, particularly predicted losses in tuna fisheries. Fisheries and tourism revenue derived from a healthy ocean environment underpin the economic and social stability, sustainable development and health of most of our Pacific island countries. Climate change threatens to permanently degrade and destabilize a massive portion of coral reefs, ocean ecosystems and the key species we are dependent upon. Given the time constraints, I will focus on tuna as an example. The western and central Pacific Ocean is home to over half the world’s tuna stocks. It supplies one-third of global tuna supply, and several Pacific SIDS are extraordinarily dependent on tuna. Nine Pacific SIDS derive an average of 10 to 84 per cent of all Government revenue from tuna fishing license fees.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  8. “There can be no greater security threat than the potential loss of one’s entire nation and its jurisdictions established under international law. The magnitude of that security challenge underpins the priority Pacific leaders have placed on registering maritime boundaries as a matter of great urgency. More recently, they have sought progressive legal options to ensure that once fixed in accordance with UNCLOS, those boundaries cannot be challenged as a result of the impact of climate change and sea-level rise. That is a highly technical and resource-intensive exercise being undertaken by Pacific island countries themselves. That work has been assisted by a consortium of partners over the last 10 years, led by the Pacific Community, supported by the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat and funded by Australia and other partners.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  9. “Pacific small island developing States (SIDS) are among the most affected for several key reasons. First, for many of our island countries, particularly the low- lying atolls, the basepoints used to demarcate maritime boundaries consist of coral islands and sandy cays. Those are vulnerable to climate-change induced sea-level rise, ocean acidification and degrading coral reef systems. In addition, the Pacific is home to the majority of low-lying atoll nations on Earth. Four of our low-lying atoll nations have between 90 and 100 per cent of their exclusive economic zones demarcated based on those vulnerable baseline features. That could have significant consequences for statehood, national identity, sustainable development, livelihoods and law and order in the Pacific.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  10. “Our collective exclusive economic zones compromise 28 million square kilometres of the globe, and more than 20 per cent of the world’s exclusive economic zones. Both collectively and individually, our economies, environments, people and security are intricately linked to our ocean and the certainty with which we can sustainably manage and benefit from the ocean’s resources now and into the future. UNCLOS established a comprehensive legal order for the ocean, providing a regime for certain, stable and durable maritime zone designations and associated rights, duties and economic returns. However, UNCLOS did not foresee the potential impact of climate change. As a result, many maritime boundaries of States around the world may be affected by climate change and sea-level rise.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source

  11. “I am grateful for this opportunity to brief the Council during this high-level debate. For over a decade, Pacific Islands Forum leaders have been stating every year in their annual communiqué that climate change presents the single greatest threat to the security of our region. There are many reasons for that, but in the interest of time I will highlight only three examples today. First is the threat to our maritime boundaries and the pivotal importance for international peace and the security of the settled legal order for the oceans, as established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and customary international law. The Pacific islands region is a blue continent, made up of 98 per cent ocean in nature.”

    2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source