HON. PM BAINIMARAMA'S MESSAGE ON FIJI’S ACCEPTANCE OF THE 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT LEADERSHIP AWARD

Bula vinaka from here in Fiji. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there in New Delhi with you all today to accept this award in person, but our Parliament is sitting this week, and I have commitment to the people of Fiji to update them on the status of our fight against climate change the very fight that caught the attention of The Energy and Resources Institute.

I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive the 2019 Sustainable Development Leadership Award. This is more than a win for me, or a win for Fiji it is a win for small and developing states around the globe. It shows that, when it comes to impacting the world, it is not the size of your country that matters but the size of your voice. And after Fiji’s COP23 Presidency, it’s clear that the once-ignored voice of the climate-vulnerable populations is being projected louder than ever. For a country like ours, with our population of less than a million, to be recognised in this way by TERI based in your nation of over 1.3 billion is proof that this voice is being heard.

I commend the organisers of the World Sustainable Development Conference for providing a platform for this voice to continue to be heard. I’d also like to thank the Institute, and its Director General Ajay Mathur, for this great honour. I thank the government of India for their longstanding support of Fiji; they have stood with us from the beginning as financial backers of COP23 Presidency, and their assistance in other areas of Fiji’s development has helped bring our country into the position of strength and prosperity that we stand today. I’d like to thank our entire team of climate champions in Fiji the network that has worked tirelessly to ensure that our Presidency was a success, and are continuing to create a legacy of sustainable development for the Fijian economy. And I’d like to pay special recognition to the grand coalition of NGOs, Governments, civil society groups, and the private sector, the collective efforts of which is going to be the real driver of progress as we move forward together. Because, my friends, when it comes to climate change, we all share a common future as we say in Fiji, we’re all in the same canoe.

Vinaka vakalevu. Thank you.