STATEMENT BY DR. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE KEITH C. MITCHELL PRIME MINISTER OF GRENADA CHAIRMAN, AOSIS ON BEHALF OF THE ALLIANCE OF SMALL ISLAND STATES (AOSIS) AT THE HIGH LEVEL EVENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE CONVENED BY THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

THEMATIC PLENARY IV – FINANCING
“FINANCING THE RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE –INVESTING IN TOMORROW”

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62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly Monday, 24 September 2007, New York
 

 

Salutation:
Mr. Secretary General, President of the General Assembly, Distinguished Co-chairs, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the distinguished honour to speak on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States.  As we in the island states know so very well, Climate Change is the single most important threat facing the economic development, the peace-and-security and the territorial-existence of Small Island States.  
Chairmen, because of sea level rise, we face the spectre of environmental refugees and our people are already being displaced.
The Maldives has some nineteen hundred (1900) islands and has undertaken significant expenditure in building sea defenses and safe-zone re-settlement for its people. The costs of protecting vulnerable infrastructure such as capital cities, airports, seaports and coastal roads are continuing to increase.  
In the case of Cape Verde islands off the coast of Africa, desertification is driving the switch from farming to tourism.  They have had to build four international airports at great cost.  
Chairmen, sea temperature rise is closely correlated with the increasing ferocity of hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons.  And these are appearing in unusual latitudes.  In the case of my beloved country, Grenada’s GDP was growing at 5% between 1995 and 2000 and was identified as being below the hurricane belt as classified by Lloyds Marine Insurance.  
We had not seen a hurricane in 49 years until Hurricane Ivan (in September 2004).  This took the lives of 35 citizens, destroyed 90% of our housing stock, and devastated our agricultural sector - destroying 80% of our famous Nutmeg - our number one export, 70% of our cocoa and all our cash crops. This brought our economy to a stand-still with losses of US $800 million or twice times that of our GDP. Few economies can withstand GDP losses of 25% without severe socio-economic repercussions, let alone 200%.   In the face of climate change, The Bretton Woods Institutions must make special provisions for SIDS even if they are middle-income countries.
While Hurricanes are forming further south in the Atlantic, Cyclones are forming further North in the Indian Ocean, affecting the Seychelles for the first time in 50 years.  This followed their earlier tsunami and we are disappointed to learn that post-disaster financing was with-held for three years by the World Bank.  
Distinguished Co-chairs, sea temperature rise is causing bleaching of coral reefs.  Loss of these eco-systems has a harmful impact on fish stocks, one of our main sources of protein and foreign exchange.  The Caribbean Climate Change Centre indicates that a further one degree temperature rise will lead to significant loss of tuna and dolphin stocks.  In Mauritius and the Seychelles, Tuna stocks are diving deeper seeking cooler waters.  The fish catch has diminished and revenues have diminished.  More investment is now needed in new studies as well as fishing technologies, equipment and practices.
Prior to Ivan, Chairmen, Grenada was the world’s second largest producer of Nutmegs.  Even with eighty percent (80%) of our nutmeg destroyed there was no multilateral funding for the replanting of our nutmeg forests. In general, small island states do not have easy access to funding mechanisms for forestation, re-forestation and maintenance of TROPICAL forests.  This needs to be urgently re-examined and we salute the work of our colleagues in Papua New Guinea who have worked tirelessly on this issue.  
More funding is required for Adaptation projects on the ground.  As an illustration, in the case of the island of Nauru (“NAY-RU”) in the Pacific where the ground water is contaminated, they need funding for 2000 water tanks, not further consultation exercises.
As these examples indicate, Adaptation funding, and funding for economic development, are almost indivisible.  They are also linked to the Millennium Development Goals.  By considering these together, we are financing the response to Climate Change while investing in tomorrow.  
Chairmen, government revenues for social, educational and healthcare programmes rely on a wide tax base and a vibrant private sector.  We therefore need a robust financial architecture that provides our private sectors with adaptation funding in the form of Micro-finance, Credit for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Venture capital, which requires no collateral, and project finance.
In closing, we call for the urgent completion of the institutional arrangements for the Adaptation Fund by COP 13 in a manner that guarantees that priority be given to the needs of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).   Specifically we wish to see:

 

1.    Independence of the decision-making of the Adaptation Fund
2.    Responsiveness and guaranteed access to SIDS
3.    A structure that maximizes efficiency and effectiveness.  

On the question of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), we welcome the energy, enthusiasm and flexibility of its new CEO.  We are disappointed with the implications of the Resource Allocation Framework but look forward to strengthening the working relationship with the GEF following reforms that make it more responsive to the needs of small island states.  These reforms must include:

1.    Greater simplification of application procedures,
2.    Reduction in transaction costs
3.    Faster turn-around time of proposals and
4.    Complete, rather than partial, funding

Finally Chairmen, This high level meeting is geared towards generating greater political will to give impetus to the December 2007 Meeting of the Parties in Bali.  The Bali process must advance negotiations towards a global and comprehensive agreement on a post-2012 framework.  The negotiations must be completed by 2009 and this framework must have the viability and adaptability of the most vulnerable, in particular the SIDS, as its fundamental benchmark.                                                                  
Thank you.

 

 PM'S DINNER SPEECH WITH THE SECRETARY GENERAL

Mr. Secretary General, Excellencies. Let me first thank you, Mr. Secretary General for convening this High Level Meeting and for inviting me to this dinner.   Gatherings such as these help engender greater levels of understanding as we seek solutions for this global menace of Climate Change.

As I mentioned earlier today, Climate Change is the single most important threat facing the economic development, the peace-and-security and the territorial-existence of Small Island States. 
In the case of my country, Grenada, we had not seen a hurricane in 49 years until Hurricane Ivan (in September 2004).  This took 35 lives, destroyed 90% of our housing stock, and devastated our agricultural sector - destroying 80% of our famous Nutmeg - our number one export.  This brought our economy to a stand-still with losses of US $800 million or twice times that of our GDP. 
Prior to this, Grenada was identified as being outside of the Hurricane belt according to Lloyds Marine Insurance.  Two successive Hurricanes within ten months of each other changed this.
Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are forming in unusual latitudes and are appearing with greater ferocity.  Apart from Grenada, unusual latitudes include the Seychelles and Oman, which have been hit recently.  And this summer we saw two category-five hurricanes make landfall in Central America, within two weeks of each other. Furthermore, with the existing sea temperature rise, our corals are dying and our fish stocks are falling precipitously. 
With this in mind, island states cannot agree to long-term mitigation targets that virtually guarantee our demise.  The Bali process must establish a principle of “No island being left behind”.  Therefore, the viability and the adaptability of the most vulnerable, must form the fundamental benchmark against which all negotiations are framed. 
The Adaptation Fund must have an independent governance structure that guarantees access for SIDS and must be operationalized quickly.  The GEF needs to be reformed to guarantee special access for SIDS.  Finally, in the face of climate change, The Bretton Woods Institutions must make special provisions for SIDS even if they are middle-income countries.
The Alliance of Small Island States, chaired by the Grenada along with the Friends on Climate Change, chaired by the UK, have started an informal series of round tables to look at innovative financing for adaptation and mitigation.  Mindful of our desire to achieve the MDGs, we want concrete plans for economic development in light of climate change that harnesses public and private financing.  Today’s meeting was a major milestone in this regard.  Going forward, we would appreciate the support of the Secretariat to give greater impetus to this effort.   This will help us to build on the momentum of this High Level Meeting to make Bali a success.  Thank you.