STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR DR SATYENDRA PRASAD, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF FIJI TO THE UNITED NATIONS IN NEW YORK ON BEHALF OF PRIME MINISTER HONORABLE JOSAIA VOREQE BAINIMARAMA AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE FINANCE FOR HIGH FOREST COVER, LOW DEFORESTATION SURINAME

15/02/2019


Your Excellency
The President of the Republic of Suriname,
Your Excellency
The Vice President of the Republic of Suriname,
Honorable Ministers,
Ambassadors 
Heads of Delegations
Distinguished delegates from UNDP, UN DESA and agencies
Ladies and gentlemen

I deliver this statement on behalf of the Prime Minister of Fiji who could not join us at this meeting due to high level commitments in Fiji this week. He extends his best wishes to the High Forest Cover and Low Deforestation group of countries and supports their efforts to mobilize climate finance for preserving and regenerating our forests. In the war to tackle climate change, our forests are one of the most important tools. 

His Excellency,

Fiji commends the hospitality extended by your Government and people. I extend Fiji’s acknowledgment and appreciation for that on behalf of my Prime Prime Minister. 

Thank you for bringing us together to Paramaribo to deliberate on an issue that concerns the very sustenance of our planet. We in Fiji celebrate Suriname’s success in being the most carbon negative country in the world and commend your efforts. Holding this meeting here is especially significant. 

Climate change poses a fundamental and existential threat to our environment, to biodiversity and to livelihoods of Fijians across the 1800 sq km of land areas and that are spread across 1.2 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean. Fiji is a small land but a large ocean state. Fiji is the first signatory to the Paris Treaty. Fiji is also the first signatory to the law of the sea. This is not an insignificant chance outcome. Both these speak to our absolute commitment to protecting the oceans and the lands that we are stewards of. 

Excellency,
Fiji faces its share of challenges in maintaining and expanding our forest cover. We need to skillfully balance pressures for economic development and conservation of both our forests and our oceans. We need to make forest conservation and protection a much larger part of our economic development narrative. 

To strike a balance between conservation and development the Fijian Government has developed a far reaching plan for the sustainable management and development of forests in Fiji’s 5 and 20years National Development Plan. This commits Fiji to ending deforestation, restoring degraded forests and substantially increasing afforestation. The overall approach Fiji has taken is to one that transforms conservation into development. We have moved away from either-or to an approach where the more you protect and expand forest cover, the more you achieve economic development. This road is not easy. 

The Fiji Government is implementing the Emissions Reduction Development Program (ERDP) under the REDD+ program to protect and enhance Fiji’s forests and determine the value of carbon credits. 
Fiji’s Low Emission Development Strategy (LEDS) has identified the potential that our forests have to offset carbon emissions. Fiji has adopted the high ambition to achieve net-negative carbon emission as has been outlined in its Low Emission Development Strategy (LEDS). Our forests are the key to achieving our net negative ambition. Securing predictable, affordable and sufficient levels of external financing for our forests is the key to our net negative target. 

That is why the HFLD Coalition is very important to Fiji. That is why also the 2019 Climate Summit convened by the Secretary General is very important to us. 

Excellency 

Fiji has set a high ambition for protecting and expanding its forests cover. Fiji is proud to share some of the most pristine tropical forests with the rest of the world. These forests are our heritage – but more so they are a heritage of the world. 

As a demonstration of our commitment, Fiji’s President launched 2019 by planting a new tree. This was the first of a million trees that we are planting over the next four years. This initiative builds on the United Nations 2030 Agenda particularly SDG 15 and supports the New York Declaration on Forests which aims to end natural forest loss by 2030. This is a significant new commitment for a small country. 

At the Agriculture Forestry and Other Land Use sector, Fiji is committed to afforestation of an area of 77,400 ha and the reduction of deforestation by 80%. Fiji’s forest cover will be increased by 40 percent as a result. 

These efforts are being largely financed through domestic resources. We have a contribution of around $150000 USD from the REDD+ Pilot Project. However Fiji has issued its first-ever sovereign green bond in the 2017. Fiji’s Green Bonds serves forestry related activities that are outlined in our national strategy. The eligible sectors for forestry activities under the Fiji Green Bonds are Resilience to Climate Change for Highly Vulnerable Areas and Sectors, Reducing Pollution and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Water Efficiency and Wastewater Management and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Eco-efficiency. 

The Environment and Climate Adaptation Levy (ECAL) is another government initiative that helps fund critical work across Fiji to protect our natural environment, reduce our carbon footprint, and adapt our economy, our communities and our infrastructure to the worsening impacts of climate change.
We can go much further and faster. But Fiji needs a helping hand from the international community. Climate finance instruments need to be far more supportive of such efforts to protect and expand the world’s carbon sinks. 

New market and non market based financing solutions are needed to help countries like ours who attract only small volumes of climate finance to achieve their net zero and net negative targets faster. 

Excellency, Fiji’s Prime Minister has demonstrated the firmest political will in tackling climate change. This political will is demonstrated by clear, unambiguous and consistent progress across all sectors of the Fijian economy on its net negative carbon pathway. 

Fiji is pleased to join the HFLD countries and proudly supports the Paramaribo Declaration calling on the World community for ambition, scale and speed in financing for forests. 

I thank you for your leadership and for your commitment in launching this Coalition. I join you in calling for the Secretary General of the United Nations 2019 Climate Summit to secure clear commitments for financing for forests on a scale and ambition that is needed to achieve our 2050 targets. It is time to act. 

Thank you
Dr Satyendra Prasad