1. Good morning Mr. Chairman and distinguished delegates. I have the honour of
delivering this statement on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States. AOSIS
associates itself with the statement made by Bolivia on behalf of the Group of 77
and China and Nepal on behalf of LDCs and Sudan on behalf of the African
Group
2. Mr. Chairman, this process is guided by climate change science and this is the
body that addresses that science.
3. The recent contributions of the IPCC Working Groups 2 and 3 to the Fifth
Assessment Report underscore that Small Island Developing States are
especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, sea-level rise, ocean
acidification, and extreme weather events.
4. Already, with warming of less than a degree, we are experiencing more
frequent and intense storms, droughts, extreme weather events, accelerating sea
level rise and other life-threatening impacts.
5. As you know, the impacts of climate change are accelerating across the world
and our membership has been particularly hard hit. There are and will be
resulting losses and damages that we can no longer prevent through mitigation,
and which will overwhelm our capacity to adapt. AOSIS first brought the issue of
Loss and Damage to international attention over two decades ago and has been
one of its most forthright champions from its inception to the establishment of the
Warsaw International Mechanism last year. For this reason, we are extremely
disappointed that there is currently no representative from AOSIS on the interim
Executive Committee and we have initiated consultations to correct this. We
must insist that there be a permanent SIDS seat on the Executive Committee on
the Warsaw International Mechanism, and look for a decision on this matter at
COP20.
6. It is essential that the actions we take are informed by the latest science, and
therefore the 2013-2015 review is a priority on our agenda. The Joint SBI/
SBSTA contact group on the Review must, with the assistance of the Structured
Expert Dialogue, deliver conclusions that lead to immediate implementation of
the actions required to meet the 1.5 degrees goal. The Review must be based on
the best, latest and most relevant science and must ultimately consider the
specific impacts and risks to key sectors and systems at different levels of
warming with a focus on particularly vulnerable countries such as SIDS and
LDCs.
7. AOSIS is of the view that the Structured Expert Dialogue should take into
consideration national and regional reports, studies, and other credible sources
of information that are not always included in peer-reviewed journals in order to
get a more complete picture of the effects of related-climate impacts.
8. We assure you of our support and look forward to make progress in these
areas.
Thank you.