Mr. President, Secretary-General, Excellencies,

Mr. President, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, I congratulate you on assuming your role in this esteemed body. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, thank you for your pivotal role in galvanizing the world to fight against climate change and the challenges of our global community.

I bring you warm greetings from the Federated States of Micronesia. I have the distinct honor and special pleasure to address this Assembly on behalf of the people of Micronesia. As a sovereign State, my country greatly values this opportunity to be able to reach out to every peace-loving country in the world represented today in this Assembly.

Mr. President,

We are at a critical crossroad. The challenges we are facing collectively as a global community are unprecedented. This Assembly, being the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the United Nations, must be innovative and be ready to adapt to emerging realities and issues confronting us. For Micronesia—and this may be shared by most members of this Assembly— further strengthening the role of the United Nations in international relations is imperative and indispensable.

The role of the United Nations in maintaining peace and stability throughout the world is, more than ever, very important, as the world is increasingly finding itself confronted with conflicts, wars, refugees fleeing, borders closing, and many States turning inwards, with the mistaken belief that global unity undermines national sovereignty.

Tragically, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities are often at the mercy of those who could have made constructive and progressive changes.

Meanwhile, record-breaking heatwaves, wildfires, king tides, and bewildering natural disasters, have become prevalent in many parts of the world. Environmental crises, in particular, are of unprecedented scale and magnitude unknown in human history. Our world is becoming complex; our environment changing; and our challenges becoming more and more daunting.

Micronesia remains committed to extending what we seek from all countries, namely: peace, cooperation, friendship, and love in our common humanity. We are resolute that there is no greater strength than respect and empathy for other human beings. It is through this resolve that we are committed to global unity in the United Nations, and I appeal to you all that we need to show that we are united in our response to these challenges.

Mr. President,

As you know, twenty-two years have passed since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, and four years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. These agreements have a strong appeal for us, the small island developing states (SIDS), as a matter of common sense and survival. Climate Change and its far-reaching effects and threats to the future of SIDS are, to us, unbearable. Those of us from low- lying atolls and coastal areas across the Pacific are living the reality of Climate Change. This reality has become our nightmare.

The chorus of appeals and pleas, in particular, by leaders from SIDS from this podium demonstrate the extent to which our peoples, at the front line of climate change, are alarmed by the adverse impacts of climate change on our planet and the fate of our present and future generations.

I believe that action speaks louder than words, and I have told my citizens that our actions today are critical to our country’s prosperity tomorrow. In the same vein, our world’s actions today are critical to our global prosperity tomorrow. Climate change is real, so we must all take the necessary actions to ensure our survival.

Mr. President,

Micronesia is addressing the existential threat of climate change, noting that it is impossible to solve climate change without protecting the Ocean, the largest carbon sink in the world. We have partnered with the Blue Prosperity Coalition (BPC) to create a comprehensive climate smart Marine Spatial Plan for our exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This partnership will further enhance national capacity to conserve marine resources and ecosystems, including by establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) in at least 30% of our EEZ. This MPA coverage will become one of the world’s largest.

Micronesia is also committed to strengthening the monitoring and control of fishing activities through the Technology for Tuna Transparency (T3) Challenge, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. This initiative implements electronic monitoring in tuna fisheries to reach the goal of 100% transparency and coverage by 2023.