The most memorable moment at the climate change talks in Bali last December came when the representative from Papua New Guinea addressed his American counterpart:
"If you're for some reason you are not willing to lead, then please get out of the way."
That proved to be the turning point of the talks. The U.S. changed course and dropped its opposition to the drafting of a new climate change treaty. The man who challenged the U.S. that day isn't from Papua New Guinea.
He's from the United States. And he's not the only American who lobbies on behalf of Pacific Island nations. Palau's Ambassador to the United Nations, in fact, a New Yorker.
So is most of his staff. Together, they're helping Pacific island nations fight the rising tides of climate change. The World's Julia Kumari Drapkin has the story.
Beck: "I think it's war. I think we're all trained in New York. We're good with confrontation."
Drapkin: Nobody seated at the table comes from a Pacific Island. But everyone is ready fight for those who do.
Beck: "Somebody has to come and tell me why these people should not raise their voices as loudly as possible. And ask for assistance from the security council."
Drapkin: And Beck's team of the young lawyers believe they can make the security council do something about climate change.
Their employing a little used strategy. They're trying to force a vote on climate change at the UN general assembly -
A majority vote there could force the security council to take up the issue. Even if the powerful members of the security council don't want to. So these lawyers working for Palau are angling for votes in the general assembly.
Beck: "A lot of the votes on controversial issues - they swing within about 10 votes. Which makes the pacific the swing group! Yeah you better believe it - these people have a serious capacity to vote"
Drapkin: And every country in the world has a vote at the general assembly regardless of size.
Traube: "Here are these small powerless countries. Who are facing a grave threat to their future. What do they do?"
James Traube is the author of a book about the United Nations. He says the security council may not be able to stop global warming, but it's the best option small countries have to get their message out.
Traube: "They rightly think, let's put this up on the highest biggest billboard that there is. And that is the security council."
Drapkin: Still, convincing the council to declare climate change a security threat isn't easy.
Two of the world's largest carbon emitters, the U.S. and China, have veto powers on the council.
Ambassador Beck
But Ambassador Beck thinks a general assembly vote could just shame the security council into taking climate change more seriously. Stuart Beck is an unusual diplomat doing unusual diplomacy. After helping Palau negotiate its independence in 1994, the American lawyer became Palau's first ambassador to the UN. And right away Beck realized the UN was not a level playing field.
Beck: "I realized that we could not compete with other missions and be effective."
Drapkin: To be effective at the UN you need resources, staff, and advisors. Things that Palau's office of one didn't have. So the baby boomer diplomat reached out to his New York City networks and got political.
Beck: "Just like college in 1967. This is how you break through! You organize. Beck organized volunteer advisors from New York University to help advocate for Palau at the UN. Law students like Nick Arons. He was one of the first volunteers to sit in Palau's chair at meetings - sitting between Pakistan and Panama.
Arons: "Every time I would appear at a meeting- I'd see everyone's eyes rolling.
But that's what you have to do in order to get something done."
Drapkin: And Arons did get something done. He and other NYU law students lobbied on behalf of Palau and other Pacific nations to restrict bottom trawling- a fishing practice that destroys coral reefs.
In the process they say they discovered a way for small countries to overcome the diplomacy gap at the UN, that could have far reaching effects.
Arons: "We could actually change the world if every small island had access to the resources that a bigger nation did."
Nick Arons and Stuart Beck
Now it's on to a much bigger issue- Climate change. Climate change has been debated just once at the security council last year, but no resolutions passed.
Ambassador Beck says it's just a matter of time before they security council does take action on climate change.
Beck: "I mean how many movies have you seen where the world council comes together to deal with the incoming meteors or aliens. But what do the people of Palau think about being represented at the UN by a bunch of American lawyers."
Remengesau: "Is this the only way? I would say no."
Drapkin: That's Palau's president, Thomas Remengesau. He says having American volunteers represent his country is not ideal.
Remengesau: But for now we need all the help we can get, this issue does not have the luxury of time.
Drapkin: And Ambassador Beck and his team aren't wasting any time. This summer they are building a coalition among Pacific Islands nations to support their climate change agenda in the General Assembly.
Beck: "The only way this is going to be effective is if it's a consensus vote.And if it's a fight- who know's what's going to happen."
Drapkin: He doesn't know if he'll win this fight. But the Ambassador to Palau, the Ambassador from Long Island, will try to keep finding new ways for Pacific Islanders to have a voice at the UN about climate change.
