PM SPEECH AT UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT

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STATEMENT 

BY 

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PERRY G. CHRISTIE, M.P.

PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER OF FINANCE 

COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS 

25 SEPTEMBER 2015

Mr. President

We are meeting at this historic moment when we leaders will adopt the 2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.  Indeed it is the hope of the People of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas that we are agreeing to a new agenda that is people-centred, planet-sensitive and inclusive in approach to its development, grounded in the common values and principles we espouse as the United Nations.

I am pleased to be here today to revisit the themes that I addressed last year: the environment, crime and security and the education and training of our young people.

What more interesting time to be here than during the visit of His Holiness Pope Francis who I had the honour and privilege to meet just before Christmas in 2013.

In his encyclical “Praise Be to You” issued on 24^th May of this year, His Holiness reminded us that the earth is our common home, a gift from God.   He said the earth cries out to us “because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her” 

What more can we say.  It is clear that as we move toward adopting the sustainable development goals, we must keep in mind our responsibility to protect the earth, its resources and its people.

Mr. President

We can be proud of the successes of the millennium development goals that we set for ourselves way back in 2000.   It goes without saying that there is much more to be done.

More to be done to eradicate poverty; more to be done to eliminate substandard housing; infant mortality; improve gender equality and the rights of the disabled; to eliminate racism, crime, violence and war.

Those themes are at the top of the Bahamian agenda.

Mr. President

The Government of The Bahamas is committed to the full and effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to building a stronger and more sustainable Bahamas.

The Bahamas is fully aware that we are primarily responsible for our national development – a responsibility from which we have never shied away. Recent events prove that small countries have to have the resilience, elasticity of response and the institutional infrastructure to withstand economic shocks that may come from unexpected directions.

Our international economic partners, the private investors and the institutional financial institutions all have a role in making sure that this resilience is sustained particularly as we look toward managing the biggest issue of all that of climate change.

I have come here today to renew the commitment to the protection of our oceans and its species; and the commitment to migrate by 2030 to renewable sources of energy; and a sustained effort at public education in the need for us to do so.

We will need the assistance of the international community. The Bahamas, along with the rest of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), has long held that GDP per capita should not be the sole determinant for the question of the economic support that is to be given our region, but that our vulnerability to economic and other exogenous shocks must also be taken into account. Indeed, a single large investor can, when it collapses, throw an entire country out of whack, and similarly, one hurricane can wipe out the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of an entire country three fold.  That was sadly evident in the tragic loss of life and the widespread damage caused by the devastating passage of Tropical Storm Erika over our sister CARICOM island nation of Dominica at the end of August of this year.

Mr. President

These kinds of shocks have resulted in the high levels of indebtedness that we in CARICOM face today. They have certainly challenged our ability to achieve the internationally agreed development goals. And thus it becomes increasingly important for this renewed Global Partnership to meaningfully address these issues, in order to buttress our attempts to implement the new development agenda, including the SDGs.

The Bahamas is pleased that the new agenda speaks to the sustainable development challenges we all face. It represents a firm political commitment to leave no one behind and to ensure a sustainable future for present and future generations.  As we agree here on the SDGs and Targets, we also agree to align them to national priorities and anchor them in our national sustainable development plans.

As we implement this new agenda we must continue to acknowledge that small island developing states (SIDS) remain a special case for sustainable development in view of their unique and particular vulnerabilities, including to the adverse effects of climate change.

Mr. President

It is important that the new development agenda leads toward a climate treaty in Paris later this year.

It is the position of SIDS that to put the world on a below 2°Celsius pathway, the Paris agreement must establish a global, legally binding framework, with commitments strong enough to reverse present upward emission trends by 2020, and to ensure fossil fuel CO2 emissions from the energy and industrial sector are reduced to zero by 2050. SIDS survival must be the benchmark for the 2015 agreement, and developed countries must honour their financial commitments from Copenhagen and provide adequate means of implementation, including through the capitalization of the Green Climate Fund.

Mr. President

The stage has already been set and we have delivered a robust agenda.  But our work has only just begun and exactly how the next scenes will play out remains to be seen.  What we can be certain of, however, is that the world, of over 7 billion people, is watching and waiting in the hope that we will rise to the challenge of truly transforming our world.

Nowhere is this challenge more important than in educating and training, preparing our young people for the future.  My government has committed itself in the area of education, to serve the needs of our population in all demographics both able and disabled, young and old. We recognise the continued role of education in supporting efforts for economic growth and poverty eradication, as well as acting as a tool for socialisation.

I am particularly concerned about the young people of the world. We have an obligation to them, to address the joblessness, the sense of hopelessness. I want to bequeath to them a sustainable world, free of violence, war and crime and with a fair chance to access the economic benefits of the world.  I say again.  If we fail to address this, we do so at our peril.

I leave you then Mr. President with the wish that we recommit ourselves to being the shepherds and protectors of mother earth.

Thank you, Mr. President.