RISING SEA LEVELS A REAL AND PRESENT DANGER TO SMALL ISLAND NATIONS SAYS #SEYCHELLES PRESIDENT
(Posted 22nd September 2017)
President Danny Faure has urged the international community to take far more seriously the need to upscale the urgent action needed to prevent, prepare for, adapt to and recover from increasingly destructive climate-related disasters.
The President was speaking in New York yesterday at this year’s annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) General Debate by world leaders.
The thoughts of the Government and people of Seychelles went out to the millions of people in South Asia, Africa, the United States, Mexico, and “our island brothers and sisters in the Caribbean” who had suffered unimaginable losses from extreme weather and earthquakes these past months.
However, for there to be peace and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet as called for by the theme of this year’s General Debate, it was not enough just to throw more resources into implementing the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
“All these processes should be democratically governed, underpinned by transparency and accountability along the way, and in harmony with, and with respect for the natural environment in which we live,” the President said.
In Seychelles, the private sector, civil society, NGOs and parliamentarians had joined with the public sector in a national effort to integrate the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs into the country’s budget and development plans.
The same inclusive approach applied to stepping up implementation of the Paris Agreement in the light of recent global developments, said President Faure. He recalled that something he said at the COP22 climate summit in Marrakech last November held true even more so today.
“Referring to the Paris Agreement, I said, ‘For the very first time in history, a global climate change deal, giving renewed hope to the world, has been reached. We find ourselves at a crossroads and cannot afford to renege on our collective commitment to travel the moral path for the sake of humanity.”
