At the outset, I would like to congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session. While assuring you, Sir, of my country’s full support, I wish you every success in implementing the priorities of your mandate. I also wish to take this opportunity to thank your predecessor, Ms. Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, for her excellent work and the progress achieved by our Organization during her term in office. On behalf of the Togolese people, I would also like to reiterate my deep gratitude to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his unwavering commitment to peace and security in a world facing multifaceted forms of upheaval.
Multilateralism and the pooling of efforts and experiences are appearing today no longer as mere options available to the community of States but rather as imperatives indispensable to the attainment of our objectives. Today, our Organization’s responsibilities are growing in number, and its multidimensional challenges are becoming more complex. In order to ensure more effective action, we must get used to the idea that there is no alternative to collective action and solidarity. Evidently, the scale and acuteness of these new challenges — which are fuelled and perpetuated by wars, sociopolitical crises, poverty, exclusion, environmental degradation and the effects of climate change — call on us to wake up and implement concrete, concerted and pragmatic actions. That is why I commend the theme chosen for this session of the General Assembly — “Galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion” — as it responds perfectly to our current concerns and reflects the values that underpin our full adherence to the Charter of the United Nations.
By adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a number of years ago, we resolutely committed to ensuring that this programme, which remains to date the most ambitious tool we have to advance the well-being of our peoples, does not become merely another programme. In this regard, I wish to reiterate Togo’s full support for all initiatives and mechanisms aimed at implementing various strategic plans in pursuit of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Government of Togo has made enormous efforts at the national level to reduce poverty and ensure that no one is left behind by 2030. With this in mind, and in accordance with the 2030 Agenda, Agenda 2063 of the African Union and Vision 2020 of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), my country adopted a national development plan for the period 2018-2022, in line with the country’s emerging agenda. The plan is a five-year strategic document based on the fundamentals of economic, social and environmental development.
Through the plan’s three strategic focuses, Togo aspires to become a stable and economically, socially and democratically sound middle-income country that espouses solidarity and is open to the world. This is already reflected in efforts to establish a strategic hub of excellence and a first-class business centre in the West African subregion and to develop centres to transform agriculture, manufacturing and the extractive industry while strengthening social development and inclusion mechanisms. In short, the plan, whose flagship project is based on rational choices that integrate all 17 SDGs, is designed to make structural transformations to the Togolese economy with the aim of ensuring strong, sustainable, resilient and inclusive growth that creates decent jobs for all and leads to improved individual well-being.
Therefore, in addition to the accelerated building of road, port, airport and agricultural infrastructure, my country is determinedly pursuing its 2008 education policy to introduce free primary education, the implementation of an expanded school meals programme and the introduction of health insurance called School Assur for 2 million students. The policy has encouraged greater enrolment, especially among girls. Through the Government education strategy for the period 2014-2025, Togo aims to achieve universal primary education by 2022 and to expand preschool services in rural and poor areas. The ultimate objective is to meet the standards of quality education and significantly reduce the illiteracy.
When we adopted the SDGs in 2015, we knew full well that the fulfilment of our development commitments would depend on the international community’s ability to mobilize the necessary financing. Accordingly, it is vital to further promote international cooperation and solidarity in order to establish innovative partnerships that will bring progress at the international level. We therefore welcome the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which remains a key framework for mobilizing financial resources likely to lead to tangible progress in achieving the SDGs. It is therefore urgent to make a definitive commitment to the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and to make the most of the relevant mechanisms it offers. In this regard, particular attention should be paid to the least developed countries and to all vulnerable countries at the margins of world trade. We should seize multilateralism as an opportunity for vibrant international economic and trade cooperation that brings hope to the human community we are building.
I would like to welcome the continuous integration efforts made within the framework of the African Union (AU) and the continent’s regional communities since the adoption of Agenda 2063 of the African Union, whose goal is the structural transformation in Africa. In this regard, my country welcomes the AU’s launch, on 30 May, in Niamey, of the African Continental Free Trade Area, one of the 14 flagship projects of Agenda 2063, which is intended to accelerate the industrialization of Africa, increase intra-African trade and build quality infrastructure. Similarly, the Single African Air Transport Market was established in response to the urgent need to unify the African domestic air-transport market. The Market, of which Togo is the coordinator, will stimulate huge cross-border investment opportunities in the aviation and tourism industries and provides an excellent opportunity to improve connectivity among AU member States. At the subregional level, the adoption of the principle of a common ECOWAS currency is also to be welcomed as an important factor in accelerating integration.
In addition to improving the legal framework to promote good governance and access to health, education and well-being, the issue of climate change and environmental protection is a major concern for my country. It is the entire international community’s responsibility to demonstrate how closely the issue of climate change is linked to food and health security, poverty reduction, economic growth and human development. We therefore believe that it is appropriate to guarantee funds to help the most vulnerable countries preserve biodiversity. That is why it is crucial for the international community to find appropriate solutions to issues related to climate change.
At this juncture, my country reiterates its support and commitment to the Paris Agreement. Accordingly, the holding of the Climate Action Summit, which took place in the run-up to the general debate, is to be welcomed. We hope that the promises made at the Summit will lead to a reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030 and their total neutralization by 2050. My country stresses the need to better endow the Green Climate Fund so that it can better assist less polluting States that are more exposed to climate change in finding the appropriate means to deal with it.
Our world today is in an extremely volatile security context. The persistence of hotbeds of tension, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and the Near East, such emerging issues as terrorism, violent extremism, natural disasters and climate change, and the trends towards nuclear proliferation threaten international peace and security, without which our development efforts cannot prosper. That is why, my country, which is committed to the values of peace and peaceful coexistence, considers that we have everything to gain by acting in a concerted manner and with strong determination to end all these crises.
The year 2019 has been a particularly scary year for several countries marked by an existential fear of terrorist threats. Recurring attacks around the world prove to us on a daily basis that this rampant evil remains omnipresent, forcing us to be constantly and increasingly vigilant. The West African region has not been spared. Indeed, there have been several attacks in Mali, the Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin and so on. Because of its proximity to neighbouring countries hard hit by the scourge of terrorism, Togo is well aware of the magnitude of the threat and remains on high alert in the face of this asymmetrical threat. Togo is currently taking a preventive and proactive approach to the terrorist threat and has therefore sought the expertise of the Office of Counter-Terrorism to help it assess the risks posed by violent extremism. The Office’s visit, which took place in Lome from 22 to 24 July, made it possible to make recommendations and assess the priority needs in terms of technical assistance. I take this opportunity to thank the United Nations for its highly appreciated support.
My country remains convinced that the spread of the scourge of terrorism requires enhanced international cooperation as its complexity precludes an individual approach by States and demands a synergistic action through a shared vision. Aware of the need for cooperation at the regional level, the Togolese Government supports the Accra initiative, taken jointly with Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and the Niger in September 2017, whose objective is precisely to unify and harmonize approaches to the terrorist threat.
To that end, it is vital that sustainable financing be found for the Group of Five for the Sahel, which constitutes an exemplary framework for cooperation in the fight against terrorism in the West African subregion. The delay in the operationalization of its joint force is highly detrimental to peace and security in Africa. In this regard, we join in the many calls for international mobilization to enable the force to act and contribute to eradicating this tentacular evil that preys on our countries. That is why my country welcomes the reform of the United Nations peace and security pillar and strongly supports the actions initiated by the Secretary-General to increase the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations through more specific mandates and collaboration with regional and subregional organizations.
However, it is not unreasonable to question the diminishing financial resources allocated to these operations as the challenges of peacekeeping and consolidation become more complex. As a major troop contributor to peacekeeping operations, Togo reiterates its commitment to serve wherever peace is threatened. We fully support both the zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse in theatres of peacekeeping operations and the Kigali Principles.
It cannot be stressed enough that nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction continue to pose serious threats to international peace and security. My country, whose foreign policy prioritizes general and complete disarmament, has always advocated the use of nuclear energy exclusively for civilian purposes. It is in this spirit that, on 7 August, the Togolese Government adopted a bill on the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear energy, cognizant of its positive applications, particularly in the fields of health, agriculture, industry and ionizing radiation, and so on.
International migratory flows are intensifying and diversifying and today constitute another major challenge to be addressed. As a result of growing economic inequality, more men and women are leaving their countries of origin in search of a safer or better life and opportunities in other places. The migratory phenomenon too often results in tragedy and is a source of sorrow for people and Governments alike. It poses enormous challenges to the international community, which must find mechanisms for collective management and more effective cooperation among States. In this regard, my delegation welcomes the adoption by the General Assembly on 19 December 2018 of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which emerged from the intergovernmental conference held in Marrakech on 10 and 11 December 2018. This historic Compact, while non-legally binding, serves as a useful road map for the more effective management of this great crisis of our time.
Our community of shared destiny compels us to overcome any temptation to resort to isolated and solitary actions. If our goal is to effectively fight against poverty and all the other ills afflicting humankind in order to build fairer and more inclusive societies, we must devote our efforts to strengthening multilateral mechanisms, while taking daily inspiration from the African proverb: “Alone we go faster, but together we go further”.


During the general debate of the General Assembly, all the States Members of the United Nations make their voices heard, and I am proud to be standing in this Hall representing the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is made up of four autonomous countries located in Europe and the Caribbean: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. We are familiar with both the trade winds of the tropics and the cold gales of the North Sea. Anyone wishing to understand our character can best begin with a concept that is close to the heart of everyone in our Kingdom — freedom.
Over the coming year, we will be celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of our liberation from oppression and tyranny. From the city of Amsterdam to the smallest villages, there will be commemorations and celebrations by old and young alike. The Caribbean part of the Kingdom will also reflect on its own contribution to the allied struggle. We remain forever grateful to our allies both in and beyond Europe for the sacrifices that they made for our sake. This collective remembrance still moves and inspires us today.
For our Kingdom, freedom is bound up with cooperation with other countries, based on equality, justice, honest relations and international law. That is why we were involved in building the United Nations from its inception, and why we look forward to next year, when we will celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary. As a platform for managing international conflicts and creating opportunities for people across the entire world, the United Nations is unparalleled in history.
We believe in multilateral cooperation. The Kingdom of the Netherlands is convinced that close collaboration within a broad-based partnership of States offers the best guarantee of freedom, security and prosperity for all. The fight against poverty and inequality is best served by joining forces at the international level. We believe that it is vital to express that clearly here in the General Assembly, given the pressure that that cooperation is under. We should cherish the multilateral system and its international agreements and rules as a precious achievement. Let us appreciate the value of what has been carefully built over many years. Let us acknowledge that we need one another, just as we did 75 years ago. In fact, we need each other more than ever. “The future we want, the United Nations we need” is the motto of next year’s session — a motto that offers plenty of food for thought. What kind of future do we want? Anyone who asks their children that question will get a clear answer. Our young people want a fair, clean and sustainable world that gives them the freedom to develop as individuals and discover who they are, where no one is left behind or has to fear violence, want or oppression. If we listen to the voices of the young, it is clear where we need to look for solutions. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will bring the world imagined by those young people closer. That is why it is essential that we put all our energies into achieving them.
We are concerned about the fact that in several countries and regions, young people risk losing all hope of a better future. One example is Venezuela, which is a neighbour of the Caribbean part of our Kingdom. We fervently hope that a way can be found out of the current stalemate by means of free and fair elections. In many places around the world people are not free to be themselves. In many places, there is no room for diversity, no respect for the rights and opportunities of minorities and no equality between men and women. As a result, breeding grounds for instability endure.
After all, every human being strives for recognition. If that recognition is denied, tensions and conflict are inevitable. We must hold firmly to the principle of freedom of religion or belief, including for minorities in places where the great majority profess a different faith. No one can prescribe how another person should think. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews and people without religious convictions should be able to follow their own conscience in peace everywhere.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands welcomes the fact that the rights of lesbian, gay and transgender people and other minority communities are being enshrined in law in more and more places around the world. We hope that that trend continues. But, ultimately, words must translate into action. The fight against discrimination, whether open or hidden, must continue on every continent.
If we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we must protect human rights. The Kingdom of the Netherlands wants to work with all Member States to champion that aim. We have therefore announced our candidacy for a seat on the Human Rights Council from 2020 to 2022, and we hope to have the support of everyone here in the election this autumn. Human rights are for everyone, even those who have committed crimes and are punished for them. People are not infallible, which means that the administration of justice is not infallible either. An irreversible sentence can never be justified. The death penalty is a violation of the fundamental right to life. That is why the Netherlands, together with all other members of the European Union, advocates the abolition of capital punishment worldwide.
We care deeply about the plight of those who are victims of war and violence. Many are refugees and many have reached the point of despair. It is essential that people whose rights are trampled underfoot know that the United Nations is on their side. The Kingdom of the Netherlands is actively involved in the Secretary-General’s efforts to make United Nations peace missions more effective. The Action for Peacekeeping initiative is a crucial part of that process. It is equally important that we take effective action to combat terrorism and eliminate the factors that fuel it. As co-Chair of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, the Netherlands is firmly committed to that goal. Anyone guilty of genocide, war crimes, terrorism or human trafficking must be held to account. The Kingdom of the Netherlands is determined to combat impunity. This week, we will be hosting an event aimed at encouraging the criminal prosecution of fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, preferably in the region where they committed their atrocities. We will also continue our efforts to strengthen the International Criminal Court, which is an indispensable component of the international legal order. It is unacceptable for individuals responsible for international crimes to escape their just punishment. In this forum, I want to repeat that under Security Council resolution 2166 (2014), all countries, including Russia, must cooperate fully with efforts to establish the truth about the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 on 17 July 2014. The families of the 298 victims expect justice, and we will not rest until justice is done.
Human rights, peace and development opportunities for all are the cornerstones of the world order that we seek to build, and they are at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals. Everyone deserves the chance to build a decent life and find respite in times of adversity. To that end, the United Nations is working with Member States in all manner of ways. But we are not working fast enough. At our current pace, we will not achieve our goals by 2030 in the area of reducing inequality, for example. We can and must speed up our efforts. The international community has shown in the past that it is capable of great things. Thirty years ago, one in three people lived in extreme poverty. Today that figure is one in 10. We have made a huge leap forward in just one generation. Let us take heart from that and put all our energies into reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. Among the many people working on those goals is my wife, the Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. For 10 years now, she has fulfilled that role with enormous drive, passion and pleasure.
Anyone who champions sustainable development must also champion climate action. Climate change is one of the biggest threats to the achievement of the SDGs. All over the world, people are feeling its impact. Climate change is affecting our livelihoods, security, health, living environments and future. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development demands that we all take more action to combat climate change. The Secretary-General deserves praise for giving this issue such a prominent place in the General Assembly. Never before has international cooperation been so urgent for the future of our planet. Greenhouse gases do not recognize national borders. We can combat climate change only if we work together, and we are glad to heed the call to take responsibility and show ambition. Transitioning to a sustainable, circular economy is no simple task. Every Member State is wrestling with that challenge, including our Kingdom, and that is precisely why we all need one another. We must join forces and share our knowledge and experience.
In the Netherlands, the Government, municipalities, the business community, civil society and the general public have joined together with the goal of almost halving emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. At the same time, we are partnering with Costa Rica to help developing countries that want to raise their climate ambitions and take action. The Nationally Determined Contributions Partnership is a vital platform in that regard, and we strongly urge the private sector to play its part and make greening a priority. As a country with more than 1,000 years of experience in water management, the Netherlands is also an expert partner for anyone working to enhance flood protection. We are proud that Dutch engineers and water managers are doing their part all over the world. What is more, next year we will be hosting the international Climate Adaptation Summit.
As we approach next year’s celebrations to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, the Kingdom of the Netherlands sees this as a time for reflection. How can we ensure that as the twenty-first century unfolds, the United Nations remains fit for purpose? After the horrors of two world wars, we created a multilateral system based on dialogue and cooperation, a system that places international agreements and rules above ultranationalism and power-based spheres of influence. As a result, we have improved the lives of billions of people and made our world more secure, and that is a unique achievement.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands believes in the need for an effective multilateral system because it offers the best guarantee of stability, peace and sustainable development. That does not mean that we can simply carry on the way we were. Reforms are needed in order to prevent the system from coming to a standstill and losing its credibility. The reforms initiated by the Secretary-General must be put into practice as a matter of urgency. He has our full support. In order to achieve that, it is crucial that Member States honour their financial commitments. It is also essential that United Nations organizations improve their cooperation and that financial resources be spent smartly and efficiently in order to achieve the best possible return for the people they are intended to help. Every person counts; every Member State counts. The United Nations will have an inclusive future or no future at all. The voices of small island developing States must therefore be heard more at the United Nations level, because their concerns have too often fallen on deaf ears.
Together, we can make our world greater. So let us remember where we began, 75 years ago. Let us realize that the building of an international framework for cooperation has given billions of people hope, security and confidence. Let us retain those achievements and uphold the values of the United Nations. But at the same time, let us rejuvenate our United Nations so it is fit for purpose in today’s world.


Much has changed since the United Nations was established many years ago. Australia was there in the beginning and we are here today because we continue to believe that differences can be resolved through dialogue and mutual respect; because we believe that an international rules-based order is essential for global stability, security and prosperity; and because we know that there can be no prosperity without peace.
The world today is complex and contested. Many fatalistically see a polarized world where countries feel pushed to make binary choices. Australia will continue to resist that path. Australia will continue to seek to honestly maintain our great alliances and comprehensive partnerships in good repair, from our great and powerful friends to our smallest Pacific Island family neighbours.
As it approaches its seventy-fifth anniversary next year, the United Nations must reform and evolve to respond effectively to the challenges of the twenty-first century. And, to fulfil its core mandate, the United Nations must be ever mindful of the principles and values that have always been foundational to the Organization’s efforts and success: the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law; respect for the sovereignty and independence of all States; open markets that facilitate the free flow of trade, capital and ideas; freedom of faith and freedom of expression; respect for human rights; and combating disadvantage, discrimination and persecution based on disability, gender, religion, sexuality, age, race or ethnicity.
Those are the liberal democratic values that underpinned the United Nations at its inception. Those are Australia’s values. We believe that they should remain the guiding principles of the United Nations into the future. The alternate path of lowest-common-denominator transactionalism and relativism is a dead end. The United Nations is the prime custodian of the rules-based order. It is also the custodian of the mechanisms for dialogue and adjudication that buttress them. It has a challenging task ahead of it.
For Australia’s part, we will continue to practice what we preach. Last month, Australia ratified a maritime treaty setting out a new sea boundary with Timor-Leste. That followed the first conciliation initiated under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It demonstrates that the United Nations and its norms are central to a cooperative, rules-based approach to global challenges.
In the Pacific, we are also stepping up. Australia is the single largest development partner for Pacific Island nations. That is an instinctive response for Australia, consistent with our clear national interest and our commitment to our Pacific family — our vuvale, our whanau. Our goal is simple — to ensure that the south-west Pacific is secure strategically, stable economically, sovereign politically and sustainable environmentally.
The Organization’s work, in partnership with Australia, has also helped to build a more sustainable and resilient Pacific, to support local climate change actions and resilience, to strive for gender equality through the empowerment of women and girls, to support continuing improvements in health outcomes and to bolster regional peace, including through the Bougainville Referendum Support Project.
Today, however, I would like to take the opportunity to speak about Australia’s response to the great global environmental challenges. First among them is how Australia is acting to protect our oceans. Australia is an island continent. It has the world’s third largest maritime jurisdiction, stretching from the Great Southern Ocean to the vast Pacific and Indian Oceans. Over 85 per cent of Australia’s population lives within just 50 kilometres of the coast. Australia’s indigenous peoples have been linked to our land and sea for more than 65,000 years.
Our oceans connect Australia with the world. Some 99 per cent of Australia’s trade, by volume, is carried by sea. By 2025, marine industries will contribute around $100 billion each year to our economy. Our prosperity and security rely on the established laws that govern freedom of navigation, be it in the Strait of Hormuz or closer to home.
Protecting our oceans is also one of the world’s more pressing environmental challenges. To protect our oceans, Australia is committed to leading urgent action to combat the plastic pollution that is choking our oceans, to tackle overexploitation of our fisheries, to prevent ocean habitat destruction and, of course, to take action on climate change. Scientists estimate that in just 30 years’ time, the weight of plastics in our oceans may exceed the weight of fish in those oceans.
Recently, I announced that Australia will ban exports of waste plastic, paper, glass and tires, starting in 2020. That is about 1.4 million tons of potent recyclable material. Australia is also leading practical research and development into recycling, turning recycled plastic and glass waste into roads, manufacturing 100- per cent recycled PET bottles and capturing methane and waste to create energy.
New technologies are coming on line, with the potential to recycle used plastics into valuable new plastics, creating a circular plastics economy. These include innovations like bioplastics, compostable plastic replacements and technologies like the Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor — an innovative Australian- designed technology that converts end-of-life plastics into waxes, diesel and new plastics. Those innovations show us that a truly circular economy is not only possible, but achievable and, of course, essential.
As Australians, we intend to do more. Australians will invest $167 million, through our Government, in an Australian recycling investment plan. Our focus is to create the right investment environment so that new technologies are commercialized, preventing pollution from entering our oceans and creating valuable new products. Australia supports the High-level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy and we are working through the International Maritime Organization to address the way shipping contributes to plastics pollution in our oceans. Australia supports the Group of 20’s work on marine plastic debris and the Osaka Blue Ocean Vision, championed by Prime Minister Abe.
We welcome the contributions and leadership from business and the private sector to address these challenges, including Australia’s own Minderoo Foundation. Industry-led mechanisms for investing in new recycling technologies and mitigating plastic waste in rivers, beaches and oceans on a global scale are absolutely essential for the way forward.
We must also act to safeguard the sustainability of our fisheries. That means cracking down on illegal fishing. There are too many nations standing by while their nationals are thieving the livelihoods of their neighbours. Australia is not only acting in its own interest, but also helping its Pacific island family to reduce illegal fishing, which depletes the fish stocks of Pacific islanders, who rely on them for their jobs, revenue and food security.
We have also worked together with Indonesia, and for that I congratulate President Widodo. We are jointly committed to an action plan to combat illegal fishing in South-East Asia, and we thank Indonesia for its regional leadership. We are also working with regional organizations to improve fisheries governance. In addition, we provide patrol boats to 13 countries, supported by aerial surveillance through our Pacific Maritime Security Program, which assists Pacific Island nations police illegal fishing in their own waters.
We are leading efforts to preserve natural habitats and biodiversity, including through partnerships with other countries to protect migratory birds and their habitats. We have also worked hard to prevent commercial whaling and to end whaling in the Southern Ocean. In 2015, Australia set up the International Partnership for Blue Carbon with the aim of protecting and conserving mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The Great Barrier Reef remains one of the world’s most pristine areas of natural beauty, and everyone is welcome to visit it. The reef is vibrant, resilient and protected under the world’s most comprehensive reef management plan. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has found that Australia’s management of the reef is highly sophisticated and considered by many as the gold standard for large-scale marine protected areas. Australia’s $2-billion Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan is based on the best available science and draws on 40 years of analysis and experience, underpinned by the management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Australia’s continued support for reef, coral and water quality science will ensure that the Great Barrier Reef remains one of the best-managed World Heritage sites.
Australia is also taking real action on climate change and getting results. We are successfully balancing our global responsibilities with sensible and practical policies to secure our environmental and economic future. However, Australia’s internal and global climate change critics willingly overlook or, perhaps, ignore our achievements because the facts simply do not fit the narrative they wish to project about our contribution. Australia is responsible for just 1.3 per cent of global emissions. Australia is doing its bit to combat climate change and it rejects any suggestion to the contrary.
By 2020, Australia will have surpassed its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol and reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 367 million tons more than is required to meet its 2020 Kyoto target. There are few members of the United Nations or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that can make that claim. Our latest estimates show that Australia’s emissions per capita and the emissions intensity of its economy are at their lowest levels in 29 years. In 2012, it was estimated that Australia would release some 693 million tons of emissions in 2020. As of 2018, that estimate has fallen to 540 million tons.
Australia’s electricity sector is producing fewer emissions. In the year to March 2019, emissions from Australia’s electricity sector were 15.7 per cent lower than the peak recorded in the year to June 2009. While Australia is a resource-rich country, it is important to note that it produces only around 5.5 per cent of the world’s coal production. Having met and on its way to exceeding its Kyoto targets, Australia will also meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change — and we stand by them. We have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below our 2005 levels by 2030. That is a credible, fair, responsible and achievable contribution to global climate change action. It represents a halving of emissions per capita in Australia or a two-thirds reduction in emissions per unit of gross domestic product.
At the centre of our domestic efforts is our $3.5-billion climate solutions package, which I campaigned on during our recent national election and successfully launched as Prime Minister. It supports practical projects, such as capturing methane from waste and the revegetation of degraded land and soil carbon. Through our climate solutions plan, we are supporting the transition to renewable energy with projects such as Snowy 2.0, the largest pumped hydro station in the southern hemisphere. We are also investing significantly in research and development to use the best science and business expertise to commercialize new renewable technologies and integrate renewables into our electricity grid. Australia now has the highest per capita investment in clean energy technologies of anywhere in the world and one in five Australian households has rooftop solar systems. In 2018, $13.2 billion were invested in clean energy technologies in Australia. That builds on the estimated $10 billion that was invested in 2017.
We are also doing the right thing by our neighbours. We recently committed to investing an additional 500 million Australian dollars over five years from 2020 for renewable energy, climate change and resilience in the Pacific region. We have decided to invest that directly from within our international overseas development programme, rather than by making an additional budget contribution to the Green Climate Fund. That enables us to target our support directly to Pacific island nations to ensure that they receive that support directly, and in a more timely and targeted fashion. At the same time, it provides greater transparency, fairness and accountability for Australian taxpayers, who rightly demand attention and support from their Government to address the significant challenges at home, in particular with regard to boosting drought resilience through our investment in national water grid infrastructure.
Australia is also committed, among other countries, to the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, an agreement that will help protect the world from ozone depletion and combat climate change. Under the Montreal Protocol, Australia will further accelerate its efforts and will use 60 per cent fewer hydrochlorofluorocarbons than permitted. I can proudly inform the Assembly that Australia is on track to fulfil those commitments and I urge all other countries to do likewise.
All of that adds up to significant and comprehensive action by Australia in response to the world’s greatest environmental challenges. Australia is under no illusions about the challenges that the global community will confront in the years ahead. Today, I want to reassure all Member States that Australia is carrying its own weight and more, just as we always have. We are a generous nation playing our part in securing our shared future. We are reforming the rules of global governance, setting common standards to ensure global connectivity in a digital future, preventing conflict, building the capacities of developing nations, supporting essential health projects, protecting our oceans, taking action on climate change and achieving results.
Like many of the leaders here, I get many letters from children in Australia who are concerned about their future. I take them very seriously and I deeply respect their concerns. Indeed, I welcome their passion, especially when it comes to our environment. My impulse is always to seek to respond positively, to encourage them, to provide them with context and perspective, and in particular to generate hope, focus their minds and direct their energies to practical solutions — things they can do, positive behaviour — that will deliver enduring results for them. I seek to encourage them to learn more about science, technology, engineering and maths, because it will be through research, innovation and enterprise that the practical work of successfully managing our very real environmental challenges is achieved.
We must respect and harness the passion and aspiration of our younger generations and we must guard against others who may seek to compound or, worse, facelessly exploit their anxiety to advance other agendas. At the same time, we must not allow their concerns to be dismissed or diminished, as that can also needlessly increase their anxiety. What parent would do otherwise? Our children have a right not just to their future, but to their optimism. Above all, we must let our children be children, let our kids be kids and let our teenagers be teenagers while we do the work positively together to deliver the practical solutions for them and their future.
I am confident that, as Australia stands here once again, together we will have the wit, the capacity and the will to surmount the challenges that will come our way, just as those who have come before us in this place have done, consistent with the values that have made that possible.


I wish to congratulate Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session and to assure him of Uganda’s full support. My delegation is pleased to have an eminent African steering the work of this organ and remains confident that he will lead the Assembly effectively and successfully. I would also like to thank Her Excellency Ms. Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces for her leadership during the seventy-third session. I pay tribute to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his dedication and commitment to the work of the United Nations.
Uganda welcomes the theme of this session. It reminds us that, by putting the eradication of poverty, the improvement of livelihoods for all and the protection of our planet among its core objectives, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015 is ambitious, inclusive and transformative; it seeks to leave no one behind.
At the outset, I wish to thank the membership of the United Nations, in particular the Group of 77 and China, for their support and for accepting Uganda’s offer to host the third South Summit in Kampala in April 2020. We look forward to welcoming all the members and working with them to strengthen and further revitalize our cooperation, within the context of a global partnership for sustainable development.
Uganda has prioritized poverty eradication and the provision of quality education in its national development plan, through deliberate and targeted investments in agriculture, industrialization, strategic infrastructure, such as roads and railways, energy production and human capital development. Uganda is mainstreaming the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the main component of the 2030 Agenda, through partnerships and targeted resource mobilization, from both domestic and external sources. Good progress has been made to integrate the SDGs into national, sectoral and local Government plans, and the progress of implementation is tracked through a national monitoring and evaluation system.
The biggest challenge remains inadequate financing to implement the 2030 Agenda. In order to mobilize domestic resources for the implementation of the SDGs, Uganda is implementing a policy of promoting exports, attracting tourists and foreign investors, mobilizing external development resources on concessional or favourable terms and strengthening institutional capacity to enhance service delivery. We are also committed to promoting integrated national financing mechanisms that will lower the cost of borrowing and facilitate easier access to capital for priority areas such as agriculture, agroprocessing and value added. While we do our part, we call on our development partners to fulfil their commitments and extend support in terms of timely and adequate means for accelerated implementation.
Setting our world on a sustainable course requires that we urgently address one of the defining challenges of our time, which is climate change. Climate change affects each and every one of us. All over the world, we have witnessed environmental disasters, the most recent of which in the Bahamas and Mozambique led to considerable loss of life and property. Those disasters showed the intensity and ferocity of the changes taking place in our environment. We stand in solidarity with the affected people as they continue with the recovery process.
Uganda has not been immune either, as it has experienced prolonged droughts, the melting of ice caps at its highest mountain, the Rwenzori Mountains, floods, erratic rainfall and landslides, which have also caused substantial loss of life. Those frequent and recurring episodes have severe consequences on our socioeconomic growth, which is heavily dependent on natural resources.
Despite being one of the least emitters of polluting gases, Uganda has taken bold measures to move to implement some concrete adaptation and mitigation actions, such as the restoration of 64,000 hectares of wetlands to benefit 4 million farmers, the reforestation of over 200,000 hectares, the generation of an additional 20 per cent of clean energy from renewable sources and the promotion of solar-powered irrigation schemes.
Climate financing remains crucial because investments are required to significantly reduce emissions, adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate. We urge developed countries to scale up their level of financial support as committed to in a concrete road map to achieve the goal of jointly providing $100 billion annually by 2020 for mitigation and adaptation.
While the world focuses on climate change, biodiversity loss continues to escalate. However, climate change and biodiversity loss are intrinsically linked, and both must be addressed simultaneously. Biodiversity is part of an intricate web of life that provides $125 trillion per year in ecosystem services to humans, such as clean drinking water, clean air, fertile soils, climate stabilization and crop pollination.
Recent reports have shown that vulnerable populations will feel the effects of biodiversity loss first, as well as benefit the most from avoiding and reversing land degradation. Uganda is a country with a large population that relies heavily on natural resources. We are therefore likely to feel some of the most extreme affects first, such as the loss of wetlands, forests and even species. That is why Uganda is supporting a proposal at next year’s meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that takes bold steps to create a sustainable planet, including protecting at least 30 per cent of our lands and significantly generating more funding from Governments and the private sector to protect nature, on which our lives and economies depend.
Uganda is prioritizing universal health coverage to ensure that the population can access health services without risk of financial or economic ruin or impoverishment, no matter what their socioeconomic position might be. To demonstrate its commitment, my Government has developed a universal health coverage road map that lays out the main policy actions for quick wins and setting the course for sustainable and faster progress.
My Government is expanding community-level health promotion and prevention programmes to reduce the preventable disease burden. It is enhancing specialized medical care services to address population needs, especially for non-communicable diseases. We are also addressing financial risk protection by ensuring the affordability and sustainability of quality health-care services through legislation and aiding the institutionalization of a national health insurance scheme.
We welcome the high-level meeting on universal health coverage held a few days ago. In addition, we underscore the need to strengthen international solidarity and cooperation to make bigger and smarter investments in health to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.
Terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. Terrorism and violent extremism continue to bring death and suffering to innocent people. Terrorist groups such as Da’esh, Al-Qaida, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram continue to inflict death and devastation. They continue to manipulate young minds by exploiting real or perceived injustices and grievances. The international community must adapt to that changing landscape. We must be unswerving in our resolve to combat terrorism. Uganda will continue to support and actively participate in global counter-terrorism efforts.
Uganda remains committed to multilateralism as a means to achieving comprehensive and equitable solutions to global problems and global challenges. The 2030 Agenda was truly a triumph for multilateralism. We proved that the global community could work together to address pressing issues facing humankind, while making the necessary commitments for the benefit of all. We must redouble our collective efforts to seek common solutions to various pressing regional and global challenges, including unsettled situations and conflicts in various parts of the world, transnational organized crime and disease.
As we saw in the recent period, the Ebola virus and other diseases know no boundaries. Recent outbreaks are a reminder of areas where countries in a region, working with the international community, can work together to detect, assess, notify and respond to such public health threats and challenges. Uganda has been involved in such efforts, and we appreciate the support extended by the international community in dealing with the recent outbreak in our region. I wish to reiterate Uganda’s readiness to strengthen international collaboration in that endeavour.
Our development and transformation cannot take place without peace and security, which are prerequisites for socioeconomic development and transformation. We should continue to give attention to supporting an environment that is peaceful, thereby enabling us to concentrate on our growth and on development. The United Nations should continue to support conflict prevention and resolution initiatives undertaken by regional and subregional organizations such as the African Union and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). That partnership should be based on a division of labour and burden-sharing, complementarity and mutual respect. Where there has been such cooperation, we have seen positive results.
We congratulate the Government and the people of the Sudan on the historic milestone of reaching an agreement between the Forces for Freedom and Change and the Transitional Military Council, which ushered in a civilian-led transitional Government in the Sudan. We commend Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and Mr. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and current IGAD Chairperson, for their tireless efforts. That was a clear demonstration of the pursuit of African solutions to African problems.
We a pleased with the progress Somalia is making in finding peace and stability. Those developments are taking place against the backdrop of Government efforts to consolidate State institutions, including the building of its national security forces, which will pave the way for the gradual drawdown and exit of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). As the country implements the transition plan, it is essential that the international community address the mismatch between the commitment to generate the requisite Somali national security forces and the drawdown of AMISOM. A failure to carefully manage that process could imperil the political and security gains already made.
With regard to South Sudan, we are pleased with the positive progress in the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan. We welcome the progress on the security front and urge the non-signatory groups to join the nation-building efforts. We call on the international community to support the positive momentum and expedite its support for the completion of the remaining critical tasks.
Uganda continues to support the efforts of the peoples of the colonies and non-self-governing territories to exercise their right to self-determination. We believe that, to achieve decolonization, the voices of the people of those territories should be heard by all. We support the right of the people of Western Sahara, the only such territory on the African continent, to self-determination on the basis of respect for the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions. Uganda supports the efforts of the Secretary-General to achieve a mutually acceptable political solution between the parties.
The Assembly made a historic pledge during the 2005 World Summit to strengthen the United Nations with a view of enhancing its authority and its efficiency. In line with that pledge, Uganda has continued to support the cause for a revitalized, reformed and effective United Nations system. It is critical to make the United Nations more responsive, efficient and effective in its support to the efforts of Member States to achieve the SDGs. Uganda welcomes and supports the Secretary-General’s reform to make the Organization more efficient and effective.
Uganda is proud to host the United Nations Regional Service Centre in Entebbe, which over the years has proved it can provide the efficiency gains and cost savings that the Secretary-General and the United Nations membership are calling for. Since its establishment, the Regional Service Centre has grown and expanded with the active support of the Government. As Member States prepare for discussions on the global service delivery model during this session, Uganda looks forward to support by the membership for Entebbe as a location for a global shared service centre.
The need to reform the Security Council is more urgent and imperative now than ever before. Uganda supports the comprehensive reform of the Security Council. The present geopolitical realities are compelling for a comprehensive reform of the Council to make way for equitable representation. Africa, with more than 1 billion citizens and over 70 per cent of issues on the agenda of the Security Council, has no representation in the permanent category of membership, in addition to being underrepresented in the non-permanent category. It is time that we address this long-standing injustice and imbalance, perpetuated in the present configuration of the Security Council, without further delay. Uganda supports the Common African Position on Security Council reform, as enunciated in the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration. We urge Member States to work to achieve progress in the negotiations on reform in the context of the intergovernmental negotiations.
The predicament of refugees continues to this day. Millions of refugees continue to live in countries facing economic and development challenges. Despite the generosity of host countries and international actors, the gap between the needs and the humanitarian funding of refugees and host communities has in effect widened. Uganda has maintained its open-door policy on refugees and currently hosts more than 1.3 million refugees — the largest number of refugees in Africa.
Our approach to refugees is anchored in our pan-African spirit, whereby we regard refugees as our brothers and sisters fleeing conflict and distress, who, above all, are seeking peace and security. The influx and prolonged presence of refugees have had an adverse impact on the environment. Forests have been stripped, as refugees need poles for houses, firewood, medicine, thatching and fodder within and far away from the refugee settlements. It is estimated that 15,000 hectares of forest and savannah woodland near several refugee settlements in the country have been lost.
The circumstances of refugees and host communities pose enormous challenges to the national authorities, which need to be addressed as part of international solidarity. Solidarity is not a one-way street. We call for more equitable sharing of the burden and responsibility for hosting and supporting the world’s refugees, consistent with international commitments.
Strengthening South-South cooperation is critical to the achievement of the SDGs. We welcome the outcome of the second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, held earlier this year in Buenos Aires. That meeting underscored, inter alia, the need to promote peaceful and inclusive societies in order to achieve sustainable development and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Finally, I wish to reiterate the readiness of Uganda to work with Member States in preparation of the South-South Summit to be held in Kampala in April 2020. We believe that the Summit will make a significant contribution to our collective efforts towards achieving the SDGs.


It is a privilege for me, as a Cabo Verdean, to greet all the peoples of the United Nations represented here by their highest dignitaries. I extend a special greeting to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in recognition of how he has been leading and elevating the United Nations system to new heights in all areas, from human rights to peace and from the struggle against inequalities and injustice to sustainable development.
I welcome the General Assembly’s adoption of resolution 73/339, on cooperation with the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries.
Cabo Verde congratulates Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande of Nigeria on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session. He can count on the support of Cabo Verde. We agree with him on the virtues of multilateral diplomacy in the service of peace and development.
Cabo Verde is a country with 559 years of history. Our history is one of ambition, resilience, triumph and adaptation. We have lived for centuries in a country where rainfall is sparse and uneven. We experienced hunger in the 1940s. Today, we are much more resilient and face periods of drought, always with the assurance of food security. Since the late seventeenth century, Cabo Verdeans have emigrated for economic reasons and today we have a vast diaspora in the United States, Europe and the African continent that contributes to our economy and the presence of Cabo Verde in the world. We have progressed from a very poor country to a middle-income country and now, in this generation, we legitimately aspire to development.
We have always had a difficult yet passionate relationship with nature. The good news, in what is a major trend moving forward, is that the world now values the resources found in Cabo Verde that caused trouble for past generations. The sea, which our musicians and poets sang about as the path to emigration and longing, has become an asset for the blue economy and tourism. The wind and the sun, which used to signal drought, now produce renewable energy. Our location, distant from the rest of the world, is now an important resource, positioning Cabo Verde as a platform in the mid-Atlantic, connecting Africa to Europe, the United States and Brazil.
We did not invent a new country; we adapted to living in it. We overcame the challenges and made a patriotic commitment to development, in the conviction that no one will do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves to drive the structural changes that our country needs in order to develop. The most secure foundation on which those changes can occur is political stability, good governance and trust rooted in the rule of law and the integrity of our institutions. Those are the most important assets that we in Cabo Verde are determined to preserve, watch over, value and improve.
We face the same economic, social and environmental challenges as all small island developing States (SIDS). We face the development challenges of a SIDS that has graduated to middle-income status. Our goal is not to grow out of less-advanced country status and remain a middle-income country under more punishing financing and cooperation conditions. Rather, our goal is to achieve development and high income. We therefore need development to be the goal of the transition process and for financing mechanisms and conditions to be coherent and consistent with that goal.
The revision of the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway currently under way is an opportunity for us to step up actions that may help island nations to develop their economic competitiveness, promote social inclusion, foster resilience in their exposure to climate change and other extreme events, as well as access and judicious and sustainable financing.
We welcome the vision that Mr. Muhammad-Bande has brought us and the theme that has been proposed for our general debate, namely, “Galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion”, without forgetting peace and security as essential conditions for those efforts to succeed. These are global issues that require local responses in a context of global solidarity as they have implications for global security in the broadest sense.
Cabo Verde is implementing its strategic sustainable development plan, which is fully harmonized with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Cabo Verde takes a cross-cutting gender equality and equity approach in our planning system, State budget and public policies. Cabo Verde guarantees the right to education for all by ensuring the universalization and funding of preschool education, providing free access to basic and secondary education and responding to special education needs. Cabo Verde has invested in social protection and care for the most vulnerable sectors of our society, including children, the elderly and persons with disabilities. Cabo Verde is betting on autonomy and self-sufficiency for families through policies that promote job creation, entrepreneurship and productive inclusion.
Cabo Verde is implementing a water and energy transition strategy aimed at reducing reliance on rainwater and fossil fuels, and improving people’s economic capacity to access water and energy. We introduced the first seawater desalinator 50 years ago. Today, 70 per cent of the population in Cabo Verde uses desalinated water for consumption. In coming years, as a result of current investments, we will reach 90 per cent. We are implementing strategies to diversify sources of water for agriculture through desalinization, the reuse of wastewater and the dissemination of drip irrigation together with renewable energy.
We are implementing an energy transition strategy in order to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. From the current level of 20 per cent, our goal is to reach 30 per cent power production from renewable sources by 2025, exceed 50 per cent by 2030 and reach 100 per cent renewable resource use by 2040. We are the first
African country to join the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance. As part of our energy transition strategy, we intend to gradually replace all internal combustion vehicles with electric vehicles by 2050. That is our modest contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in transportation.
Cabo Verde has demonstrated its alignment, commitment and credibility with respect to the broader ideals of the United Nations. We wish to position Cabo Verde as a useful interlocutor in promoting dialogue, peace and tolerance among nations and as a credible ally for cooperative security against such transnational crimes as drug trafficking, trafficking in persons and terrorism. We are taking all steps to implement the 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in an effort that involves Government, companies, civil society organizations and international partners. We seek even greater commitment in order to achieve our ultimate goal of developed status. For the United Nations, which will celebrate 75 years of existence in 2020, and for each country individually, this is a great moment to accelerate our actions towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals if we actually wish to leave no one behind and achieve one of the more humanistic goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Time is short and we need concrete action to reverse the direction and breadth of climate change. Time is short and we must implement effective responses to the challenge of poverty and its consequences. Time is short and we must commit to peace. The current generation of political players does not have all the time in the world and must be held accountable to humankind. The time has arrived for us to move beyond intentions. It is time for us to undertake concrete, measurable and committed actions to fulfil the aspirations of our peoples and our global needs. It is time to improve the world.


At the outset, it gives me pleasure to sincerely congratulate you, Mr. President, on your assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session. I also express my appreciation to Ms. Maria Fernanda Espinoza Garces, President of the General Assembly at its previous session.
Our gathering this year comes at a time when the magnitude of the challenges facing our world is increasing. It is therefore imperative that we all engage in an in-depth discussion on the prospects for advancing our work under the umbrella of the United Nations, while upholding the noble values upon which the Organization was founded. That can be achieved by reaffirming our commitment to an effective and just international order that is based on dialogue, cooperation, promoting a culture of peace and mutual respect.
As a founding member of the United Nations and of a number of regional organizations, including the African Union, which we are honoured to chair this year, and of the League of Arab States, Egypt has always possessed its own unique vision and contribution towards addressing the greatest challenges of our world. Allow me here, from this important rostrum, to present Egypt’s visions and contributions in that regard.
Respecting the principle of national ownership of solutions is crucial to ensuring the effectiveness of the international multilateral system. Egypt has a pioneer national experience in that regard. In recent years, it has embarked on an ambitious plan to comprehensively advance its society, including by resolutely combating terrorism and launching the most ambitious economic reform programme in its modern history. That has been undertaken in accordance with national plans and priorities, which have been embraced by the Egyptian people, who have graciously shouldered their burden of successfully implementing the first phase in a manner that exceeded all expectations.
Regionally, as the current Chair of the African Union, we have worked alongside our brothers to consolidate the principle of African solutions to African problems. That seeks to develop a comprehensive approach that lays the foundations for development through a continent-wide vision based on our common history, unity of destiny and confidence in our ability to achieve progress towards integration and uphold the interests of our peoples. To that end, a new mechanism has been launched in Cairo, which will focus on post-conflict reconstruction, namely, the African Union Centre for Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development.
Undoubtedly, all Member States are well aware of the many recent successes in implementing the principle of national ownership, supported by an active African role, which resulted in achieving a peace agreement in the Central African Republic as well as developing a common vision among the various parties in the Sudan to manage the transition phase in that country. In that connection, I would like to call for the removal of the Sudan’s name from the list of States that sponsor terrorism, in order to acknowledge the positive transformation of that brotherly country, which would enable it to confront the economic challenges it faces by interacting with international economic organizations in order to fulfil its people’s ambitions and ensure that it returns to its rightful place within the international community.
On the principle of national ownership, African countries are fully cognizant of the importance of formulating genuine and effective partnerships to address the political and economic challenges they face and gain access to knowledge and technology, develop African human resources and mobilize the necessary financing and political support — all essential to achieving the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
I therefore call upon international, continental and regional financing institutions to assume their role in financing development in Africa on the most favourable terms. Indeed, Africa is a continent of promising opportunities. It could become the new engine of growth for the entire global economy, especially after the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the strengthening of regional integration arrangements and the development of an ambitious strategy for infrastructure.
I would like, in that connection, to refer to Egypt’s convening of the first Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development, to be held in December in Aswan, which will serve as a platform for dialogue among international and regional actors, including political leaders, financial institutions, civil society and the private sector, that aims to implement international and regional initiatives and mechanisms targeting Africa.
Resolving protracted and inherited crises is a necessary precondition for any serious efforts to formulate a more effective international system. The most prominent example of that is the longest-standing crisis in the Middle East — the Palestinian question. The persistence of that question, without a just solution based on international resolutions that call for the establishment of the independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital, means not only the continued plight of the Palestinian people but also the continued depletion of the capabilities and resources of the peoples of the Middle East.
I reiterate with a clear conscience what I have stated from this rostrum over the past few years — Arabs are open to the realization of a just and comprehensive peace, the Arab Peace Initiative is still valid and there remains an opportunity to launch a new phase in the Middle East.
However, we need bold decisions that restore the rights of the Palestinians and pave the way for a major change in the reality of the region and — I say this without exaggeration — the entire international system. Such decisions would lead to the establishment of a security and economic system in the Middle East that is based on peace, security, cooperation and common interests.
The adoption of comprehensive solutions to address the root causes of international problems is imperative for the success of the international multilateral system. That applies to the protracted crisis of the brotherly Libyan people, who suffer daily from the scourge of an armed conflict that must be stopped.
It is time to take a decisive stance to address the root causes of the Libyan crisis in a comprehensive manner by committing to the full implementation of all the provisions of the United Nations action plan adopted by the Security Council in October 2017 and by addressing the grave imbalance in the distribution of wealth and power, as well as the lack of public oversight by the Libyan people’s elected representatives over political and economic decision-making. We also need to work on unifying all national institutions in order to save our brotherly neighbour from the ensuing chaos triggered by militias and prevent the intervention of external actors in Libya.
Just as it is imperative to find a comprehensive solution to the Libyan crisis, a political solution in Syria has also become an urgent need. We can no longer afford to waste time and continue in the vicious cycle that Syria has been enduring for eight years. While Egypt welcomes the announcement of the formation of a constitutional committee, we nevertheless call for the immediate commencement of its work without delay as a fundamental step towards the realization of a comprehensive political settlement, in accordance with Security Council resolution 2254 (2015). That would lead to safeguarding the unity and territorial integrity of Syria and the cohesion of its institutions, and would put an end to the bloodshed while totally eliminating terrorism.
The same logic applies to the protracted crisis in Yemen. It is time to take a decisive stance to end the crisis there by implementing a political solution based on the well-known parameters. We need to end foreign interventions by non-Arab regional parties that seek to curtail Arab national security. We also need to address the unprecedented threats facing the Arabian Gulf region, including threats to navigation, as well as the recent attacks on oil installations in the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The principle of addressing matters comprehensively also applies to one of the most daunting challenges of our time — terrorism. Egypt has persistently called for a comprehensive approach to combating terrorism based on the necessity of confronting all terrorist organizations, without exception. In that regard, I stress the need for all to fully comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions and hold accountable those who support terrorism — whether by providing them with funding, weapons, safe havens or media platforms — in addition to those involved in facilitating the movement and travel of terrorists.
From this rostrum, I reiterate Egypt’s readiness, in the light of its extensive counter-terrorism experience, to intensify its cooperation with friendly countries and the United Nations, especially with regard to countering the ideology of terrorism. I stress the importance in that regard of implementing Security Council resolution 2354 (2017), on the implementation of the comprehensive international framework to counter terrorist narratives, which was adopted on the basis of an Egyptian initiative to uphold the values of tolerance and the renewal of religious discourse.
The Security Council must work seriously and resolutely to address the imbalance in its composition and the shortcomings of its decision-making process. We must ensure a just and balanced representation in the Council. We must work to rectify the historical injustice to which our African continent has been subjected. I reiterate our commitment to the common African position based on the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, and I call upon the Assembly to adopt that just position within the framework of the relevant governmental negotiations.
For decades, Egypt has sought to strengthen and deepen the bonds of cooperation with its brotherly Nile basin countries, with which it enjoys excellent relations. As a testament to its keenness to further the wellbeing of the sisterly peoples of the Nile basin, Egypt has expressed its understanding regarding Ethiopia’s first steps towards construction of the Renaissance Dam, despite the fact that Ethiopia did not conduct the necessary studies on the effects of that huge project to ensure that no harm befalls the water interests of downstream countries, including Egypt.
Yet Egypt took the initiative to propose the Agreement on Declaration of Principles on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which was signed in Khartoum on 23 March 2015, initiating a four-year negotiation process to reach an agreement governing the process of filling and operating the Renaissance Dam. Unfortunately, those negotiations have not yielded the desired results.
Nevertheless, Egypt still hopes for an agreement that will secure the common interests of the peoples of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, the Sudan and Egypt. The continued impasse in the negotiations on the Renaissance Dam will have negative repercussions for the stability and development of the region in general, and of Egypt in particular.
While we recognize Ethiopia’s right to development, for Egypt the water of the Nile is a matter of life and existence, which places a great responsibility on the international community to play a constructive role in urging all parties to demonstrate flexibility in order to achieve a mutually satisfactory agreement.
In conclusion, Egypt’s message today comes in the form of a call for the pursuit of peace, a call to action for the benefit of humankind, a call for cooperation and mutual understanding, a call for the achievement of sustainable development and the promotion and protection of human rights, and a call for the realization of what is the ideal path for the benefit of the international community.
May God help us for the good of all our peoples. Peace and God’s mercy and blessing be upon those present.


Ei nga tangata katoa, e manaa kitia ana te whenua, o te Ai Whanui Ei nga kaitiaki, e riterite ana, nga whenua, hurl rauna, i to Ao Ia tu tatou ki te wero hia I nga wero I te ingoa o te tika o nga me a katoa Tema koutou katoa.
I greet the Assembly in Te Reo Maori, the language of the tangata whenua, or first people, of Aotearoa, New Zealand. I do so, not just because it is the same way I would begin an address if I were at home but because there are challenges that we face as a world that I know no better way to express. Maori concepts, like kaitiakitanga, represent the idea that all of us here today are guardians — guardians of the land, of our environment and of our people.
There is a simplicity to the notion of sovereign guardianship. For decades we have assembled here under the assumption that we narrowly cooperate only on the issues that overtly impact one another, issues like international trade rules, the law of the sea or humanitarian access to war zones. The space in-between has, essentially, been left to us.
We, the political leaders of the world, have been the authors of our own domestic politics and policies. Decisions have been our own and we have ultimately lived with the consequences — but the world has changed. Over time, we have become increasingly interdependent. We see more and more often domestic decisions that have global ramifications. Physical events have taught us that in obvious ways — oil spills that show no respect for maritime boundaries; nuclear accidents and testing, the impacts of which are never confined to the exact location in which they occur; and so on.
Yet our interdependence, our connection, runs so much deeper than that. Experiences in recent years should lead us to question whether any of us ever truly operate in isolation anymore. That is a question that we, the remote but connected nation of New Zealand, have been grappling with this year. There are things that we are well known for in New Zealand — green rolling hills, perfect, you might say, for hobbits to hide in and for plenty of sheep to roam. We are known for manaakitanga, or the pride we take in caring for our guests, so much so, that it even extends to our most entrenched sporting rivals.
Now we are known for something else. On 15 March 2019, an alleged terrorist undertook the most horrific attack on a place of worship, taking the lives of 51 innocent people, devastating our Muslim community and challenging our sense of who we are as a country. There is no changing a nation’s history, but we can choose how it defines us.
In Aotearoa, New Zealand, the people who lined up outside mosques with flowers, the young people who gathered spontaneously in parks and open spaces in a show of solidarity, the thousands who stopped in silence to acknowledge the call to prayer seven days later and the Muslim community who showed only love — those are the people who collectively decided that New Zealand would not be defined by an act of brutality and violence, but instead by compassion and empathy.
Make no mistake, we do not claim to be a perfect nation. While we are home to more than 200 ethnicities, that does not mean we are free from racism or discrimination. We have wounds from our own history that, 250 years on from the first encounters between Maori and Europeans, we continue to address. But since the terrorist attack in New Zealand, we have had to ask ourselves many hard and many difficult questions.
One example sticks in my mind. It was only days after the shooting that I visited a mosque in our capital city. After spending some time with community leaders, I exited and walked across the car park, where members of the Muslim community were gathered. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a young boy gesture to me. He was shy, almost retreating towards a barrier, but he also had something he clearly wanted to say. I quickly crouched down next to him. He did not say his name or even “Hello”, he simply whispered, “Will I be safe now?”
What does it take for a child to feel safe? As adults, we are quick to make the practical changes that will enable us to say that such a horrific act could never happen again — and we did that. Within 10 days of the attack, we made a decision to change our guns laws and banned military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles in New Zealand. We have started on a second tranche of reforms to register weapons and to change our licensing regime. Those changes will help make us safer. But when you are a child, fear is not discrete and it cannot be removed through legislative acts or decrees of parliament. Feeling safe means the absence of fear; living free from racism, bullying and discrimination; feeling loved, included and able to be exactly who you are. To feel truly safe, those conditions need to be universal — no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter where you live.
The young Muslim boy in Kilbirnie, New Zealand, wanted to know if I could grant him all of those things. My fear is, that as a leader of a proudly independent nation, that is one thing that I cannot achieve alone, not anymore. In our borderless and technologically connected world, commentary on race, acts of discrimination based on religion, gender, sexuality or ethnicity are not neatly confined behind boundaries — they are felt globally. The fact that I received so many letters from Muslim children from around the world in the weeks after 15 March speaks to the power of connection.
Those children had no sense of distance. They may have never heard of New Zealand before 15 March. They just saw an act of hatred against their community and it felt close to them. Whether it is acts of violence, language intended to incite fear of religious groups or assumptions about ethnicities that breed distrust and racism — those actions and utterances are as globalized as the movement of goods and services. Children hear them, women hear them, people of faith hear them and our rainbow communities hear them.
Now, it is our turn to stop and listen — to accept that our words and actions have immeasurable consequences and to speak not only like the whole world is listening but with the responsibility of someone who knows a small child somewhere might be listening too.
The spaces in which we communicate are part of the challenge too. In an increasingly online world, we need to create spaces for the exchange of ideas, the sharing of technology and the exercise of free speech, while also acknowledging the potential for that technology to be used to cause harm. The events of 15 March were a staggering example of such harm and a deliberate effort to broadcast terror on a massive, viral scale over the Internet. The alleged terrorist did not just take the lives of 51 people, he did it live on Facebook. In the first 24 hours after the attack, Facebook took down 1.5 million copies of the live stream video. YouTube saw a copy of the video uploaded, at times, as fast as once every second during the same period.
The alleged terrorist used social media as a weapon. The attack demonstrated how the Internet — a global commons with extraordinary power to do good — can be perverted and used as a tool for terrorists. What happened in Christchurch, as well as being a profound tragedy, is also a complex and ongoing problem for the world. It is a problem we felt a sense of responsibility to do something about, so we sought to collaborate with the technology companies that are so integral to the solution.
Two months after the attacks, leaders gathered in Paris for the Christchurch Call to Action Summit, bringing together companies, countries and civil society, and committing to a range of actions to reduce the harm such content can cause. In so doing, we have kept our focus on the deeper aim we all aspire to — technology that unleashes human potential, not the worst in us.
Yesterday, I met with Call supporters to check on our collective progress. We announced that a key tech industry institution will be reshaped to give effect to those commitments and we launched a crisis response protocol to make sure that we can respond to such events, should they happen in the future. Neither New Zealand nor any other country could make those changes on their own, and neither could the technology companies. We are succeeding because we are working together and for that unprecedented and powerful act of unity, New Zealand says, “thank you”.
The centrality of technology in our lives is not the only example of our increasing interconnection and reliance on one another if we are to respond to the challenges we face. There is perhaps no better example of our absolute interdependence than the issue of climate change. When the Secretary-General visited the Pacific region this year, he saw at first-hand how countries that have produced the fewest greenhouse gas emissions are now facing the most catastrophic effects. In his words: “To save the Pacific is to save the whole planet.”
In fact, 7 of the 15 most climate-affected nations in the world sit within the Pacific region, including places like Tuvalu, with a population of just over 11,000 people, which barely contributes to global emissions but is paying the price for our collective inaction; atolls so low-lying that in weather events the water on either side of them can flow together and join at the narrowest points, engulfed by the sea; or Tokelau, a beautiful set of three atolls that can only be accessed by boat, where the children speak knowledgeably about climate change, knowing that unlike all the challenges their self-reliant forbears have ever faced, this one is completely and utterly in other people’s hands.
They have never met the world leaders represented here, nor have those leaders met them, but I can tell everyone that their expectations of all of us are high. Meeting those expectations will require us to use every policy lever available and, following the example of the Christchurch Call, we need to work with partners inside and outside Government to make change.
In New Zealand, we have plenty of work to do. We may produce only 0.17 per cent of global emissions, but like so many others, our gross emissions have been rising steadily since the 1990s. That is why we have coupled ambition with action. Over the past two years since my Government took office, New Zealand has produced our own zero carbon legislation, which puts our domestic economic transformation in line with the objective of a 1.5°C limit in global temperature increase.
We have continued towards our goal of planting 1 billion trees. We have created a $100 million green investment fund. We have stopped issuing new offshore oil and gas exploration permits. We are creating a plan to achieve 100 per cent renewable electricity generation and to incentivize low emission transport options. We are also supporting our Pacific neighbours with projects to increase solar power, reduce the use of diesel generators, protect coastlines and stop seawater from entering water supplies.
Some answers to the climate challenge are easier than others. The vast bulk of our greenhouse gas emissions, for instance, do not come from transport, energy generation or waste but from one of the things that we pride ourselves on — our food production for the world. We know that requires us to adapt. In fact, our farming leaders have made their own commitment to cutting emissions from food production. Over the next five years, we will collaborate with farmers to build systems in New Zealand that every farmer will be able to use to measure, manage and reduce their own farm’s emissions.
We are doing that because we are unique. Agriculture makes up nearly half of our greenhouse gas emissions, setting us apart from our counterparts in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, but we will not stay out there on our own for long. When other countries cut pollution from traditional sectors, like energy and transport, their profiles will start to look more and more like ours does today.
New Zealand will never produce all of the food that the world needs, no matter how many sheep the world may think we have, but we can produce the ideas and the technology that the world needs for everyone to farm and to grow in the most sustainable way possible. New Zealand is determined to do good and to be good for the world.
That is why we are also focused on tackling the billions of dollars that countries spend annually on fossil fuel subsidies — billions that could instead be spent on transitioning to new forms of clean energy generation. Despite commitments to phase out such subsidies by groups like the Group of 20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, we are still struggling to see concrete action. It is time to do things differently.
New Zealand will once more be calling on countries to support an end to fossil fuel subsidies at the Twelfth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference, to be held in June 2020. This week, New Zealand and a group of like-minded countries will also announce the launch of a new initiative that applies trade levers to climate-related goods, services and technologies.
It is time for trade deals to become a force for good on climate action. They need to stop allowing perverse subsidies that incentivize pollution and finally remove tariffs on green technology. Fossil fuel companies should no longer reap the benefits of subsidies that many, like our farmers and others, have been asked to give up. Without the billions in subsidies that go into the fossil fuel industry, green energy can compete on an even footing. It is both the most fair and economically consistent thing to do. My question is — will our fellow members of the General Assembly join us?
That brings us back to the concept that challenges our modern political environment. We are being asked to make decisions that are local, but with consequences that are global. Yet that is what climate change requires us to do and it is what, historically, our commitment to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, asks us to do. It is what standing up against acts of violence and discrimination asks us to do. Our globalized, borderless world asks us to be guardians not just for our people, but for all people.
There may have been a time when being unified under common challenges was an easier concept than it is today, but, undeniably, we are living at a time when our greater reliance on one another has collided with a period of greater tribalism. It would be wrong to assume that this is a new phenomenon. Research has, in fact, shown that humans are so inclined to form natural tribes, that if one were to put a completely unconnected diverse group of people into a room and flip a coin for each person, two groups will automatically form a suspicion of one another based on nothing more than heads versus tails.
Scientist and writer Robert Sapolsky recently reminded us that humans organize. Whether according to class, race, country or coin-flipping, there has always been a tendency to form “us” versus “other”. But he also asks the question: What if we change what “us” means? What if, instead of forming our tribes based on fierce nationalism or self-interest, we seek to form them based on concepts that can and should be universal? What if we no longer see ourselves based on what we look like, what religion we practice or where we live, but by what we value — humanity, kindness, an innate sense of connection to each other and a belief that we are guardians, not just of our home and our planet, but of one another?
We are borderless, but we are connected. We are inherently different, but we have more that we share. We may feel afraid, but as leaders we have the keys to create a sense of security and a sense of hope. We just need to choose.
Tatou tatou. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.