President Hilda Heine joined leaders from 174 other nations Friday at the United Nations in New York City to sign the climate change agreement that was endorsed at the global climate summit in Paris last December.
“The world has come together today in New York to make history,” she said Friday. “Today’s signing ceremony shows that the climate action canoe has left the island, and that we are determined to accelerate the huge shift to a climate resilient, zero emissions economy that Paris set in motion. Paris was just the start; securing a safer climate future for us all must be the end.”
The President also delivered a brief statement earlier in the week. In it, she commented: “Last year in April there were still many who doubted we could all make progress on climate change, reducing disasters and completing the adoption of sustainable development goals for the whole world. We have emerged from the shadows of doubt, and achieved progress on each of these important issues. The adoption of the UN’s 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and signing of the Paris Agreement show we are all walking together in the same direction. But some of us, including the Marshall Islands, will need more support in the achievement of a future where we can thrive — not just survive.
Heine added: “My Sustainable Development Goals challenge — we in the Marshall Islands can better invest in ourselves, but you, the international community, must also invest in us.”
Read more about this in the April 29, 2016 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.