Delivered by H.E. Jeem S. Lippwe, Baku, 20 November 2024.
Check against delivery
When most people think of islands and climate change, they picture rising seas slowly swallowing the land sometime in the future. But the truth is more dire: climate impacts are happening every day, beating down upon us and stealing lives and livelihoods day after day.
Extreme heat has become a silent killer in Micronesia, with heat-related illnesses and deaths rising. This threat targets our most vulnerable—our children, our elderly, those unable to escape the sweltering conditions. It also strikes our food systems—weakening taro crops and coral reefs.
Climate impacts are not abstract statistics for us; they are our daily reality. Our days and nights grow steadily hotter, typhoons battering our shores are stronger and more frequent, and rising seas threaten our coastal communities.
The past year brought severe drought across Micronesia, depriving us of fresh water for drinking and food production. Yet we lack the financial, technical, and infrastructural resources to respond effectively. As discussions on loss and damage continue, the harm escalates. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry—responsible for much of this crisis—enjoys record profits while contributing nothing to those suffering.
The Ocean, too, is a victim of this warming. As it heats, we face a “triple threat”: fish fleeing our waters, dying coral reefs, and ever-stronger typhoons fueled by rising sea temperatures.
We are not future victims of climate change; we are its present victims, grappling daily with its consequences. The impacts are seeping into our freshwater, compromising infrastructure, and eroding the marine ecosystems that sustain our way of life.
Adding insult to injury, fossil fuel funding has quadrupled in a single year. This is unconscionable. Now more than ever, the world must phase out fossil fuels and cut super pollutants like methane. Swift and drastic action is our best hope to limit warming this decade.
Speed is critical. Non-CO2 Gases deliver faster results to avoid warming. They require more priority, funding, and action from all countries, while the world continues to decarbonize.
Financing must flow swiftly. It must align with real needs of countries, and there must be a genuine increase in funds for the developing world– for loss & damage, for adaptation, for deep mitigation. The Global Stocktake must keep our momentum, not be blocked at the start. And all countries must ensure their next Nationally Determined Contributions reflect a more ambitious commitment to keeping 1.5°C alive.
The climate crisis is rife with injustice. Island nations like ours are strengthening our commitments, but we face rising debt as we adapt and recover from intensifying climate emergencies. We are doing our part, but others are not doing enough. The people of Micronesia refuse to surrender to a crisis we did not create. We call on the world’s largest polluters to take responsibility. We implore them to act now so that people like ours do not pay the ultimate price.
We call upon the world to stop fossil fuel expansion. Stop emitting super pollutants. Stop overconsumption that depletes shared resources.
And we ask the world to start acknowledging responsibility for the past. Start safeguarding the lives of the lives and resources of the future and those most vulnerable to climate change. Start committing to serious action and then do not stop…. until our planet is safe.
I thank you.
