Permit me, first of all to express my sincere appreciation, on behalf of the Organization of American States to Government and people of the Dominican Republic for hosting this Second Ministerial on Sustainable Development and also for the traditional warmth and hospitality you have given us from the moment of our arrival in your beautiful country. It is indeed always a pleasure to be in the Dominican Republic.

Mr. Minister, in these challenging times, a decision by any OAS Member State to host a Ministerial Meeting of this nature is an example of leadership and admirable conviction. I also know that this year has been a particularly challenging one for the Dominican Republic and its people and therefore I appreciate even more the Governments commitment to this important ministerial. In addition to dealing with these challenges you continue to support recovery efforts in Haiti following the terrible earthquake there in January of this year under the motto “Solidarity beyond the Crisis”.

Haiti’s needs are many and while Haiti’s authorities and the international community are focusing justifiably on the preparation and the holding of Presidential and legislative elections in less than two weeks under very challenging circumstances, we all should not forget that the People of Haiti, especially those living in temporary shelters, are in dire need of the basics. The building of a better Haiti requires however a stable political environment facilitated by a constitutionally elected President and legislative framework that can work in unity and through an inclusive process with non-state stakeholders towards the identified development objectives and priorities.

This meeting is taking place at a very opportune time - just over one year after the 5th Summit of Americas, which dealt with the themes of energy security and environmental sustainability – and a few days before the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Cancun.

Also, this meeting coincides with the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere, an instrument in which the Government of the Dominican Republic played a pioneering role as one of the first countries to sign and ratify this Convention.

Distinguished delegates, hardly a day passes by without frequent and powerful reminders from various parts of our region about the importance of integral development and about the need to strengthen the resilience of communities to natural hazards. Natural disasters are not limited to certain countries and regions anymore in our Hemisphere. All of our countries face the impact of these events, and it impacts on our economies, on the security situation and can create instability and threaten peace and democracy; therefore it is necessary to place natural disasters high on the political agenda of the OAS and other mechanisms of dialogue in our region, such as the Summit of the Americas.

This year has been a particularly traumatic one for many countries and peoples in our Hemisphere. I have already referred to the unforgettable earthquake in Haiti in January which was followed a month later by the earthquake in Chile.

We then had the prolonged dry season in the Caribbean and parts of Central America between February and June; and just recently the passage of Hurricanes Richard and Tomas which as we know, claimed scores of lives and damaged hundreds of millions of dollars worth of social and economic infrastructure in Belize, Costa Rica, Haiti, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados.

As always we will continue to stand by and with the Governments and peoples in these affected countries as they try to rebuild livelihoods, societies and economies that have been so harshly treated by these natural events.

Even as we lament these unfortunate events in our region, we must acknowledge the unprecedented strides our region has made in sustainable development since the First Ministerial on Sustainable Development in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 4 years ago.

For example, there is now growing appreciation that the best way to conserve biodiversity is to make it an instrument for sustainable human development, through biodiversity prospecting, ecotourism, tradable carbon offsets, and paying farmers to practice agro-forestry and reforestation. Initiatives of this nature are being promoted by governments such as Bolivia and Costa Rica through incentives, tax credits, direct payments and increased access to credit.

Several cities have become more livable through concerted planning efforts. I refer to cities such as Quito, Ecuador, with its Neighborhood Recycling Program; Curitiba, Brazil, with its Public Transport System; Toronto, Canada with its eco-friendly practices for business and industry; and Portland, Oregon with its Transit-oriented Development. Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile have also made strong and irrevocable commitments to improve air quality.

In addition, several countries are using market instruments for environmental conservation and are raising funds through voluntary taxes in tourism, taxes on fossil fuels, and through fees and water user fees that contribute to the conservation of environmental services that we enjoy every day, such as those provided by forests, water and protected areas.

On the energy front, progress has been no less encouraging. Several countries, large and small are taking concrete steps to reduce their carbon footprint. The development of wind and geothermal energy in Nevis, the Wigton Wind Farm in Jamaica and those under construction here in the Dominican Republic, as well as the Cellulosic Ethanol Project in Belize, are prime examples of encouraging trends in renewable energy and low carbon development in the Caribbean.

Even more noteworthy is the solid spirit of partnership which is supporting these efforts including the Brazil-US Biofuels Partnership involving El Salvador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, St. Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica, and Guatemala and the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) which was announced by President Obama during the 5th Summit of the Americas.

In the area of water, the OAS has been able to support improvements in the integrated management of watersheds and aquifers of critical importance, such as in the Bermejo River, the Guarani aquifer, the Rio San Juan, La Plata Basin and Rio Bravo – where we have acquired several years of experience, which has been continually revitalized through partnerships with the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank and United Nations Environment Program.

Progress has been made but so long as old challenges remain and new challenges like climate change emerge, our region has no choice but to redouble its resilience building efforts.

For the skeptics in the developed world, climate change is still not a reality; for others it is an immediate challenge for future generations. But for people in the Caribbean and Arctic regions, for people in low-lying coastal areas in North, Central and South America, and for communities highly dependant on the fluctuations of water availability, a changing climate is a clear and present danger to life and livelihoods.

I take this opportunity to call on the international community to honor the pledges made in Copenhagen to curb their greenhouse gas emissions and to make available the promised funds for adaptation to climate change in the most vulnerable regions. At the same time, I call on OAS member States to step up their own efforts to make their societies and economies more resilient to the adverse impacts of climate change and other natural hazards.

The reality of poverty in our hemisphere cannot be ignored.
We simply must act now and with vigor to reduce the human misery and crippling loss of life, property and infrastructure caused by hazard events in our region. We must pay closer attention to risk drivers such as increasing urbanization, poor governance, vulnerable rural livelihoods and declining ecosystems.

I believe that we need to reconsider the current development paradigm and develop a more holistic, comprehensive and integrated approach to achieving stability, security and prosperity in our societies, by incorporating a sustainable use of our natural resources, by focusing on the human and creative potential of our people, by addressing issues of social exclusion and injustice and promoting equality and equity, by taking serious account of the vulnerabilities of our economies, especially the smaller economies in the Caribbean and Central America, beyond the objectives of economics and short term profits.

We need increased investment in pre-emptive disaster risk management programs and we must strengthen mechanisms to enable us to extract and share the “good” and “bad” lessons” from disasters. Particular attention should be given to building the capacity of countries to design and manage comprehensive Early Warning Systems that assist in preparedness and response not only to impending natural disasters but also to internal and external policy failures that can weaken the vulnerability and resilience of countries to natural disasters.

We have already completed an internal review of the organs and mechanisms of the OAS for dealing with disaster risk and we will aggressively seek the resources to support the work of the Inter-American Network for Disaster Mitigation and the Inter-American Committee on Natural Disaster Reduction (IACNDR). Given the increase in frequency and intensity of natural hazards I pledge to discuss with Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza how to make the IACNDR more effective as we need a more coordinated, pragmatic and quicker response to natural hazard in the hemisphere.

I am very pleased with the work the General Secretariat has been doing with limited resources to support the transition in OAS Member States to sustainable development. I also appreciate the support received from donors and Permanent Observer countries. I urge your continued support for the work of the Sustainable Development Department in implementing the Inter-American Program for Sustainable Development and the commitments made at this meeting in Santo Domingo.

We still have a long and arduous road ahead. We all agree that change is necessary, especially regarding how we think and act when it comes to sustainable development, the response to natural hazards and climate change.

But the principal questions are: are we as citizens, non-state stake holders, policy makers, legislators, politicians and government leaders really willing to listen, learn and understand about these critical threats to our societies, are we individually and collectively willing to agree on what needs to be done and establish the necessary implementation and institutional frameworks and finally enforce the internationally, regionally and nationally agreed policy and measures ?

Are we willing and ready to make the necessary decisions and choices which undoubtedly will affect our lifestyle of today, but will benefit generations after us !

Distinguished Delegates, I thank you very much for your attention, I wish you productive deliberations and I look forward to the concrete recommendations emanating from these discussion.