Mr. President,
I have the honor to speak on behalf of the 43 Members of the Alliance of Small Island
States. We are deeply disappointed by the decision that has now been taken. However,
we fully understand your difficulties and the situation that you were faced with. If I
may reference the statement made by His Excellency Ambassador Slade during the
high level segment, I think you can also see our clear concerns with the process.
The provisions of articles 4.2 a and b are central considerations and are integral to the
balance of the Convention. Ambassador Slade made clear at the opening plenary what
the concerns of AOSIS countries are in respect of these articles. Our concern has been
made even more serious by the fact that there is no procedural way to deal with the
issue. The absence of such a procedure does not release the Annex 1 Parties from their
obligations, nor does it excuse the Conference of the Parties from its constitutional
duty to carry out this review.
There is an urgent need for a genuine opportunity to hear the views of Parties, to
listen to the concerns and to review these articles. AOSIS is disappointed that we are
not seeing adequate or even demonstrable progress towards the objective of the
Convention, and that further delay in beginning to take action will make our prospects
for survival even more tenuous. Annex 1 may be taking some actions but certainly not
to the extent that we had expected from their statements here. And we are not afraid to
discuss our efforts to reduce our already minute emissions. But we think that such a
discussion would only question why Annex 1 Parties are not doing more, given the
very low levels of resources that we have available and the major progress that we
have been able to make.
We take note that the issue will now move automatically to the agenda of the 6th
Conference of the Parties. May I conclude by requesting that this statement on behalf
of the Members of the Alliance of Small Island States be reflected in the report of the
Conference.