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STORY: UN / OCEANS SMALL ISLAND STATES
TRT: 02:03
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 31 MAY 2017, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
31 MAY 2017, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, presser
3. Med shot, reporters
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ronald Jean Jumeau, Permanent Representative of the Seychelles to the United Nations:
“The absence of USA does not make the glass half empty or half full. It’s still more full than empty. So I think it’s the attitude people use. One thing you can look out in the Ocean’s Conference, I’ll Segway into this now, is you are going to see an increasing movement worldwide by countries trying to find out how best they can use the oceans to tackle climate change.”
5. Med shot, reporters
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Jimmy Chigiyal, Permanent Representative of the Federal States of Micronesia to the United Nations:
“For a Pacific island country climate change is an existential issue. So we will continue to do what we have been doing. As you know our countries’ contribution to this problem, this challenge, is very small. And yet we have done everything that we need to do to do our part. And so we will continue to do that and we hope that other parties to the Paris Agreement will maintain and uphold their commitments and obligations.”
7. Med shot, reporters
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ahmed Sareer, Permanent Representative to the United Nations for Maldives and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States:
“Let the world buy sustainable tuna and ask questions about how and where your fish was caught when you order at a restaurant or at the market and explore ways to take better care of your local ecosystem and demand the same of your politicians.”
9. Wide shot, reporters
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Jimmy Chigiyal, Permanent Representative of the Federal States of Micronesia to the United Nations:
“We need to improve monitoring and penalties for IUU fishing. We need to improve science so we know the health of the tuna stock. And we need your partnership to also help us improve local institutions needed 5to be even better stewards of our own resources.”
11. Wide shot, end of presser
Amid speculation that the United States will drop out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the Seychelles Ambassador, Ronald Jean Jumeau, today (31 May) said “the absence of USA does not make the glass half empty or half full. It’s still more full than empty.”
Briefing reporters ahead of next week’s Oceans Conference in New York, Jumeau said “you are going to see an increasing movement worldwide by countries trying to find out how best they can use the oceans to tackle climate change.”
The Ambassador of the Federal States of Micronesia, Jane Jimmy Chigiyal, said “for a Pacific island country climate change is an existential issue” and pointed out that the island states’ “contribution to this problem, this challenge, is very small. And yet we have done everything that we need to do to do our part.”
She added that “we will continue to do that and we hope that other parties to the Paris Agreement will maintain and uphold their commitments and obligations.”
Addressing one of the biggest concerns for small island states, the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing of tuna, the Maldives Ambassador, Ahmed Sareer, said “let the world buy sustainable tuna and ask questions about how and where your fish was caught when you order at a restaurant or at the market and explore ways to take better care of your local ecosystem and demand the same of your politicians.”
Chigiyal said “we need to improve monitoring and penalties for IUU fishing. We need to improve science so we know the health of the tuna stock. And we need your partnership to also help us improve local institutions needed to be even better stewards of our own resources.”
The high-level United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development will be convened at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 5 to 9 June 2017, coinciding with World Oceans Day, to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. The Governments of Fiji and Sweden have the co-hosting responsibilities of the Conference.
The Conference aims to be the game changer that will reverse the decline in the health of our ocean for people, planet and prosperity. It will be solutions-focused with engagement from all.
