The international community has yet to adopt a sufficient strategy to bind all countries to contribute towards curbing climate change, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg told the UN General Assembly.

Dr Borg, who spoke for the second time in New York in a week, pointed out that this year brought stark reminders of the devastation and loss of life that could be expected if climate change continued unabated: floods and landslides in Asia, drought in Europe and Africa and fires in Russia.

“Yet, despite such warning, the international community has still to adopt a sufficiently ambitious response strategy that would bind us all to contribute fairly to mitigating climate change, keeping it within manageable limits. Important steps have indeed been taken over the last two decades (in Rio, Kyoto and Marrakech). But the great expectations of a decisive push forward in Copenhagen last year were disappointing,” he said.

In the meantime, he said, vulnerable states like Malta had no option but to integrate the expected climatic impacts in their vision of their future. “Adaptation to these impacts is, in fact, a requirement for all of us, large and small. Yet, the topic often lingers on the sidelines of policy-making. We must give adaptation the political and economic attention it deserves and ensure well-targeted financial support to vulnerable countries or communities most in need of it.”

Referring to immigration, he said that while Malta affirmed its commitment to abide by its international obligations, at the same time it was reiterating its call to the international community to continue to assist in the resettlement process of such unfortunate people.