12 February 2012: In a welcome statement marking her start as Chair of the Bureau of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Ambassador Marlene Moses of Nauru identified the Alliance’s main challenge over the next few years as working with the international community to achieve climate change mitigation and adaptation. Moses, Nauru’s Permanent Representative to the UN, became the AOSIS Chair in January 2012, succeeding Ambassador Dessima Williams of Grenada.
Highlighting the current and forecasted impacts of climate change on island communities, Moses noted that the international community’s response to climate change has been less than what is required, both to protect island people and all of the world’s inhabitants. She said AOSIS, therefore, is investigating ways to increase the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions ambition and to partner with committed countries to find the additional reductions that science shows is needed.
With regard to climate change mitigation, the challenge is to work with the international community to stabilize GHG emissions at a level that ensures the survival of all nations. With regard to adaptation, it is to provide the resources vulnerable communities need to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change, and develop sustainable futures. [Statement by AOSIS Chair]
