Secretary-General, at Pacific Island Forum Opening Ceremony, Says Greater Financial, Technological Support for Region Crucial to Protect Climate, Save World

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Pacific Islands Forum Opening Ceremony, in Tonga today: 

It is a great pleasure to address the Pacific Islands Forum. And allow me to express my deep gratitude to the Government and the people of Tonga for their incredible hospitality.

We meet at a turbulent time for our world.  Raging conflicts, an escalating climate crisis, inequalities and injustices everywhere, and the 2030 Agenda is faltering.  But, this region is a beacon of solidarity and strength, environmental stewardship and peace.

The world has much to learn from the Pacific and the world must also step up to support your initiatives.  This is a region of fearless seafarers, expert fishers and deep ancestral knowledge of the ocean.

But, humanity is treating the sea like a sewer.  Plastic pollution is choking sea life.  Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification and a dramatic and accelerating rise in sea levels.

Pacific islands are showing the way to protect our climate, our planet and our ocean:  By declaring a climate emergency and pushing for action, and with your Declarations on Sea Level Rise, and aspirations for a just transition to a fossil-fuel-free Pacific.

The young people of the Pacific have taken the climate crisis all the way to the International Court of Justice.  You have also rightly recognized that this is a security crisis — and taken steps to manage those risks together.

I want to express my full support to the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, and I will do my best to help mobilize international resources for the Pacific Resilience Facility and to engage with all the relevant initiatives the Pacific Island Forum.

The survival plan for our planet is simple:  Establishing a just transition for the phaseout of the fossil fuels that are responsible for 85 per cent of the emissions of greenhouse gases.  All countries must produce national climate plans — nationally determined contributions — by next year, aligning with the 1.5°C upper limit of global heating.

The Group of 20 (G20) — the biggest emitters responsible for 80 per cent of those emissions — must step up and lead, by phasing out the production and consumption of fossil fuels and stopping their expansion immediately.

When Governments sign new oil and gas licenses, they are signing away our future.  The Pacific Island States’ ambition for a fossil-fuel-free Pacific is a blueprint for the G20 and for the world.

But, the region urgently needs substantial finance, capacities and technology to speed up the transition and to invest in adaptation and resilience.

That is why we have been calling for the reform of the international financial architecture, for a massive increase in the lending capacity of multilateral development banks, for debt-relief programmes that work, including for middle-income countries that are in distress, and an enhanced redistribution of special drawing rights, to benefit developing countries and in particular small island developing States.

The decisions world leaders take in the coming years will determine the fate, first of Pacific Islanders — but also of everyone else. In other words: If we save the Pacific, we save the world.

Pacific Island States have a moral and practical imperative to take your leadership and your voice to the global stage.  You demonstrated this leadership once again with the General Assembly’s endorsement of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index.  We must now make sure that international financial institutions include them in their criteria for operations.

The Summit of the Future in New York next month will be an opportunity to reform and update global institutions, so they are fit for the world of today and tomorrow.

Across the board, the Summit aims to provide developing countries with a greater voice on the global stage, including at the UN Security Council and in international financial institutions.

I urge Pacific Island States to make your voices heard and heard loudly because the world needs your leadership.