Our vulnerability is not a statistical category; it's the reality that we're experiencing, and that's why we welcome that this assembly has committed to adopting a declaration on sea level rise guaranteeing stability in maritime areas. The declaration also includes sargassum, which is a scourge that afflicts the Caribbean coast every year, affecting tourism. Following an initiative by the Dominican Republic, the UN General Assembly and the Assembly for the Environment have adopted the first global resolution on sargassum, which, as a regional problem, recognizes a global challenge. We will not tire in calling for climate finance to be delivered as quickly as storms strike the Caribbean. In this vein, we have moved to ratify the BBNJ agreement on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, and in March, we laid down our ratification instrument. The ocean is an important source of life and is our most extensive border, and that's why protecting it is a state obligation.

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While the world focuses on headline grabbing events like monster hurricanes, melting glaciers, and tidal waves, climate change is affecting Saint Lucia daily in small but significant ways, such as the unusual bouts of drought in the rainy season, unprecedented floods in the dry season and stifling of our beaches and coastlines by Sargassum. Our people contribute little to this global emissions. Yet these events constantly set back our people's development and livelihoods and demand that we find the resources to reverse the damage. Saint Lucia calls for climate finance that matches the scale of the crisis: expanded grants and concessional funding, fast and simple access, full support for loss and damage, meaningful debt relief and financing that reaches vulnerable people directly. Climate finance is not charity. It's about justice, responsibility and survival. We must stop confusing loans with solidarity. A loan is not justice when a small, vulnerable nation is forced to borrow to repair damage it did not cause. A United Nations that delivers for all must deliver for those on the front lines of climate change through accessible finance, concrete support and measurable results, not merely through declarations. Saint Lucia laments the continued conflicts and human sufferings across the globe, including Ukraine, Sudan and the wider Middle East, including Gaza, and calls for renewed efforts towards peace, stability and respect for international law. In accordance to the right to self determination and UN resolutions, in particular resolution 3236 of 1974,

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But the risks are growing. Hurricanes are more intense. Weather patterns are less predictable, which makes anticipatory action more complex. New stressors, such as the unprecedented influx of sargassum along our coast, have no ready-made responses. Managing them requires innovation, capable institutions, and strategies that are properly financed. Yet even the best national efforts will fall short without coordinated international cooperation.

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We believe Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana is well suited to be that person. Mr. President, for small island developing states, climate change is not a distant forecast. It is a present danger and recurring financial emergency. We suffer the scourge of sargassum seaweed that damages our tourism. We worry about the growing problem of Sahara dust that seriously degrades our air quality across the Caribbean. And of course, we worry constantly about hurricanes. In July 2024, Hurricane Beryl struck Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and demonstrated once again how a few hours extreme weather can destroy lives, homes, livelihoods and infrastructure built over many years and set a country back. Small states cannot continue borrowing merely to replace what climate related disasters repeatedly destroy.

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