Remarks by Minister Dion at Pacific Islands Forum's Post-Forum Dialogue Partnership Meeting

September 10, 2016 - Pohnpei, Micronesia

Check against delivery. This speech has been translated in accordance with the Government of Canada’s official languages policy and edited for posting and distribution in accordance with its communications policy.

Good morning to all, bonjour, kaselehlie!

On behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, I want to tell you that it is a great pleasure and honour it is to be the first Canadian minister ever to attend the Pacific Islands Forum [PIF]. And it was well overdue because the challenges you face with climate change are the challenges of the world.

I remember that at my first international conference as Canadian minister of foreign affairs last November at APEC in Manila, the most striking address, at least to me, was delivered by the PIF Secretariat Director for Economic Governance [Shiu Raj], who eloquently highlighted the dramatic, if not existential, threat that climate change represents for Pacific Island countries.

But I remember also that in 2005 at COP [Conference of the Parties] 11, in Montréal, when I chaired the yearly United Nations conference on climate change [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change], while the world was saying, “Climate change is coming, it is coming!” the current prime minister of Tuvalu, Prime Minister [Enele] Sopoaga, said, “It is not true, climate change is already here, it is here!”

Well, last year, at COP 21 in Paris, what was the world saying? Exactly that: “Climate change is here, it is here!” And we ended up with the Paris Agreement, a great achievement, but one that isn't enough—so at least we need to deliver Paris!

So I am here today, and I see and hear how much indeed you are on the front line of the fight against climate change. And I will report it to Prime Minister Trudeau and my Cabinet colleagues.

The tropical storm that struck Vanuatu in March 2015 left 75,000 out of 250,000 people in need of emergency shelter. When Cyclone Evan hit [Samoa] in December 2012, it caused damage estimated at 30 percent of Samoa’s GDP. It would be hard for Canadians to imagine the scale of such disasters!

Pacific Island countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change, and this despite contributing less than 0.03 percent of the world’s total greenhouse-gas emissions. Climate change is possibly the most existential crisis facing the region, on top of the other challenges any developing region must tackle. Many of you explained these challenges in our bilateral meetings yesterday: development and energy, youth employment, lack of capacity and gender equity, good governance, the rule of law and security.

Climate change is not a threat that can be dealt with in isolation. We need to face it together. The way solutions are developed here will inform how the rest of the world develops solutions. We need to work multilaterally, and this is a message that Prime Minister Trudeau wants me to deliver across the world.

I would argue—and I am sure that you would agree—that the most concrete and the most critical consequence of climate change has to do with water. Water is the main challenge of the 21st century.

Rising sea levels are perhaps the most existential of threats here in the Pacific. You know that for your people these risks are a matter of survival. Salinization of soil, coastal degradation and the looming threat of submergence of entire island nations are already part of your reality. But this is a threat that the whole world will have to face: some 147 [million] to 216 million people live on land that may be below sea level or regular flood levels by the end of the century.

Sea-level rise is causing increased risk of environmentally induced migration. This is a profound concern that many of you have raised with me.

Despite this alarming scenario, there is currently no international organization with a clear mandate to protect people displaced across borders by natural disasters and climate change.

Canada was a founding member of the Platform on Disaster Displacement this year, and we will host the Fifth Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Montréal in 2017. We recognize that this is an emerging issue and that much more needs to be done.

Another key issue I have discussed with many of you already is the health of fish stocks. Overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, climate change and acidification undermine ocean ecosystem health and diminish the ability of oceans to support human and economic development. Exploitation of the planet’s fish stocks has more than tripled since the 1970s, with 40 percent of popular species such as tuna now being harvested unsustainably.

Canada is already a partner in the Pacific Islands. For instance, the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives funds small projects throughout the region. Yesterday, I visited two of these projects, which are doing amazing work in conservation and empowerment: the Conservation Society of Pohnpei and Micronesian Productions.

I am also pleased to announce today the launch of Canada’s Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Technical Assistance Facility, a $12-million initiative designed to support capacity-building and the deployment of experts to improve trade and investment in the region. This fund is demand-driven, and I warmly encourage you to apply.  

Canada also provides funding to multilateral organizations active in the region and beyond, including $100 million to the World Bank’s Pilot Program for Climate Resilience and $300 million to the Green Climate Fund. Canada is also the sixth-largest donor to the Global Environment Facility, of which all developing Pacific Island countries are recipients.

We also share a keen interest in marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdictions, and we are participating in the current preparatory committee at the UN looking into the development of such an instrument under UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]. Canada played an active role in the early 2000s in the establishment of the “tuna commission”[PG1]  [Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission].

But Canada needs to do more, we all need to do more. Prime Minister Trudeau’s government is willing to do its part. This is why [the Prime Minister] announced $2.65 billion [in funding] over the next five years to help developing countries tackle climate change, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable countries. Canada also pledged to increase our contribution to the Global Fund [to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria] by 20 percent, and we are hosting the [Fund’s] replenishment conference next week in Montréal. I know the Global Fund is active in many countries in this region.

Although Canada’s west coast is far away, and we have Arctic and Atlantic ocean coastlines, Canada is a Pacific nation. We are your neighbour. We lie on the eastern boundary of your vast ocean continent.

Canada is a maritime trading nation like all of yours. Our prosperity depends upon finding collective solutions to man-made climate change and on strengthening the international order.

The world needs Pacific Island countries to succeed! If we get it right [at] PIF, we can get it right for the world. The way collective solutions are developed here will inform how the global community finds solutions.

Canada has a lot to offer and a lot to learn. As a Pacific country, we must do more with our Pacific partners. And we will!

Thank you, merci, kalahngan!

Contacts

Chantal Gagnon
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
343-203-1851
chantal.gagnon@international.gc.ca

Media Relations Office
Global Affairs Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
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