Your Excellencies:
No-one is coming to save us!
We must save ourselves!”
This is not a cry of despair, but a call to action.
Since the Paris Accord, which we agreed eleven years ago at COP 21, the range and pace of change in the affairs of humankind have been breathtaking.
But the underlying facts which prompted that agreement, have not changed.
And, worryingly, the collective behaviour of states has not changed enough.
Just step outside.
Each year, our world gets hotter than the year before, and global carbon and greenhouse gas emissions are still rising.
Sea levels continue to rise, and glaciers continue to melt and fall.
Low-lying states have still not received the support needed to protect them from one day disappearing beneath the waves.
Hurricanes and typhoons are more frequent and more ferocious.
And we still struggle to navigate the economic cycles of destruction and rebuilding, as financing promised in one cycle does not materialize in that cycle.
We must save ourselves.
Amidst the turmoil, frustration, and disappointment, we have come to see that we have mis-diagnosed the problem.
We have been telling ourselves that the problem is lack of political will.
If we could only persuade enough leaders, in enough capitals, of the benefits and justice of our mutual, enlightened self-interest, then the world would act.
There has never been a shortage of willing leaders.
Every COP produces them.
They stand at the podium, they make the pledge, and they mean it.
Then there is an election, or a coalition collapses.
A budget is cut.
A new government arrives with new priorities and amnesia.
Excellencies:
We have been building a global response to an existential crisis based on individuals’ goodwill.
But….
Individuals come and go.
That is the flaw at the heart of everything we have done.
Implementation is frustrated because we are the inheritors of promises made by persons who no longer occupy the seats of power.
We need to focus on continuity and permanence.
Permanence means that financing must be automatic, not merely pledged.
Permanence means that commitments must be enshrined in treaty and law, not just declarations and communiqués.
And permanence means that we must embed the special circumstances of Small Island Developing States as a structural fact, not just a category that has to be re-argued every decade.
Self-determination should not mean “each nation for itself”.
None of us – large or small – can meet this crisis on our own.
For us, self-determination translates into self-reliance, taking proactive measures to help save ourselves and others.
Beneath Bahamian waters lie the largest seagrass meadows on Earth.
They cover tens of thousands of square kilometres of the shallow banks around our islands.
They are the heart of our planet.
Every day those meadows draw carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the seabed.
They shelter the fisheries that feed our families.
They soften waves before they reach our shores.
And they keep our waters clear for those who visit from every corner of the world.
Seagrasses also work for the planet.
The carbon they hold stays out of the atmosphere.
And the service they provide to the climate crisis knows no borders.
Protecting these meadows serves every nation in this room.
We in The Bahamas have learned lessons from our grandparents.
You take care of what takes care of you.
Our Blue Carbon Programme brings that wisdom into the age of climate finance.
Taking care of our seagrasses means that we can take care of us all.
We have already made a significant investment in establishing the scientific, legal and fiscal frameworks.
We now need international partners to fully implement the programme, who will stay the course, whose commitment is not dictated by donor cycles or ideological trends.
For a generation, the world has looked at Small Island States and regarded us as the first to follow.
Look again.
With our Blue Carbon Programme, we will be the first to lead.
Our thanks to the government and people of Türkiye for their warm welcome and gracious hospitality.
Thank you.
END