Page 1
His Excellency Beretitenti Anote Tong’s Statement on the occasion of the
Rio + 20 General Debate, 20 June 2012, Rio De Janerio, Brazil
Today’s gathering marked twenty years since we last assembled on this beautiful land
to deliberate on sustainable development. The 1992 historical Earth Summit marked the
distinctive debate on environment being central for a sustainable future. Since then we
have faced many challenges, challenges that also provide us with opportunities to
reflect and to rethink on our approaches towards sustainable development and I believe
that the burning question that we should ask ourselves as we reassemble here today is,
have we steered enough towards the right direction?
Mr. President;
Honorable Leaders and country representatives;
United Nations Secretary General;
Distinguished delegates;
Ladies and gentlemen;
Kam na bane ni Mauri and greetings from Kiribati!
I have no doubt that we have all come here today with a purpose – that purpose being
to secure a better and safer future for our children and our children’s children. But let
me pose a somewhat challenging but very relevant question “are we here to secure the
future of each other’s children or just our own?”
Excellencies;
Ladies and gentlemen;
I believe that our respective answers to this question hold the key as to whether or not
there is any credibility in this whole process; whether it has any meaning for all of us?
Our experience over the past twenty years, clearly indicate, that as a global community
we have failed to achieve sustainability for most; some through mismanagement and
Page 2
some through our collective abuse of the global commons in the name of sustainable
development. This is especially true for the most vulnerable countries on the frontline of
the climate change challenge. The science on climate change as reported by the IPCC
makes this very clear.
I am sure we all agree that our mission today in coming to this Rio+20 Conference is to
take stock of past performance and to see if we can do better. A great deal of
international dialogue has been ongoing over the past twenty years; the ongoing and
unresolved UNFCCC negotiations; the negotiations leading up to this very conference;
we are now almost at COP20 and of course numerous other meetings. It all started here
with the historic Rio Earth Summit twenty years ago which was a milestone in first
acknowledging the environment as one of the three (3) pillars of sustainable
development.
We are back here again but with a great deal of knowledge about the state of our planet
and our performance over that period in ensuring that it remains sustainable for future
generations. Armed with this bank of data, we are today in a much better position to
make better informed and the right decisions which we can be excused for not doing in
the past. So what prevents us from doing the right thing?
Sustainable development may be defined as that balance between developments now
without compromising opportunities for future development. But my sense of justice also
insist that sustainable development should be defined as that balance between
development by one country but not at the cost to other countries or to the global
commons. The science, in particular on climate change, clearly indicates that over the
past twenty years we have collectively applied our own convenient definition of
sustainable development.
Over time we have come up with new definitions of sustainable development such as
Green Growth. And whilst I am a firm believer in the concept of Green Growth, in the
need for global conservation and rational management of resources, terrestrial and
oceans, as credible pathways vital to achieving sustainable development, I also believe
Page 3
that it must be sustainable for the benefit of all but not just the few. That in my view, and
in its most simple term is moral justice.
Let me take a few moments to comment on these new definitions and initiatives. As I
have already said, I firmly support the Global Green Growth, the Global Oceans
Partnership program and other initiatives which provide alternative pathways to
ensuring sustainability of the planet. I believe that they provide a more positive
alternative approach to a very complicated process which our experience with the
stalled UNFCCC negotiations had demonstrated. I have always advocated that in the
negotiations we should focus on those areas where we find agreement and get on with
it rather than allow the more controversial issues to stall the whole process. But in
supporting these initiatives, I do so with a very clear and loud warning that we should
never at any time forget or ignore the science already available to us. The effectiveness
of these initiatives in taking care of the planet must constantly be measured against the
science already available.
In making these comments, I do so as the voice of a nation together with the few other
most vulnerable countries on the frontline whose future survival are seriously under
threat from the impacts of climate change. The science of climate change tells us that
the international community has failed to ensure our future survival as viable nations
within this century. We have become collateral damage to the narrow definition of
sustainable development. The lack of clear commitment to date from the international
community has not provided us with the guarantees that will allow us to meet the
challenges posed by climate change. So my purpose today is to send a clear message
and to urge all of us as a global community to ensure that the next countries on the line
do not follow the fate of those countries that are on the frontline of this human induced
calamity.
In spite of such a gloomy future, we remain committed to do the best we can not only to
face the challenges ahead of us but also to make our contribution to ensuring
sustainability of the planet for the rest. As an ocean nation, we depend so much on the
Page 4
ocean for our lives. This has always been the case and will be so for our children and
their children. As such we strongly uphold the concept of green development in a blue
world and we are actively taking leadership in safeguarding marine biodiversity. To this
end, we have committed over 400,000 sq. kilometers of our EEZ to be a Marine
Protected Area - the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, popularly known as PIPA. As a
region we in the Pacific have also committed to linking national marine protected area
initiatives into a region wide Pacific Oceanscape comprising some 40 million square
kilometers of the Pacific Ocean. In this regard, I am also encouraged that the World
Bank has initiated the Global Partnership for Oceans and it is our fervent hope that this
initiative can gain momentum and global endorsement here at this Rio+20 Conference.
On another front, we limit and manage the exploitation of our fisheries stock through the
restriction of vessel numbers and allowable catch demonstrating that though we derive
over 50% of our annual income from fisheries license fees, we do not allow
indiscriminate fishing activities as part of our conservation and management efforts to
limit over-fishing within our EEZ. These are our contribution and our sacrifice.
To face the challenges of climate change we have mainstreamed our adaptation
strategies into our national planning process. Our adaptation strategy includes
maintaining the integrity of our islands both now and into the future within our limited
capacity to do so; relocation as a last resort as necessitated by the scenarios predicted
by the science among the limited options we have.
I have no doubt that in order to achieve sustainability, there has to be a commitment
and sacrifice. The resources of this planet are finite, and simple common sense tells us
together with the law of balance that the more one takes, the less the other will have.
Let us be responsible citizens and renew our commitment to make our world a better
place today and tomorrow for all. Let us do away with the conventional approach of
negotiating our differences and let us find common grounds and pursue these.
Page 5
In closing Ladies and gentlemen, let me share with you and all the peoples of the world
our traditional Kiribati blessings of “Te Mauri”, “Te Raoi” and “Te Tabomoa”, meaning
health, peace and prosperity.
