 Honourable Yeogida Sominaden, the Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation of the Republic of Mauritius. Her Excellency Honourable K. Mark Coney, Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology of Barbados. His Excellency Mr. Muniz Lafaye, Minister of Communications and Transport of Tuvalu. His Excellency Mr. Lila Elapouli Ayafi, the Vice Minister of Communication and Information Technology of Samoa. Ms. Doreen Bogdan, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of International Telecommunications Union. Mr. Mamad Alimbokas, the Chairperson of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority of Mauritius, dear delegates, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure to be with you at the opening ceremony of this global forum on emergency telecommunications with my good friend and colleague, Minister Yeogida Sominaden. I am doubly blessed to be among you today for having been at the head of the ministry responsible for ICTs on two occasions in my lifetime. This global forum comes at a critical time where we are witnessing unprecedented calamities around the world. Climate change is posing a direct existential threat to us all. It is having dire and considerable implications on the functioning of ecosystems, on people's livelihood, food security, human health, and infrastructure. Whether patterns are changing, sea level is rising, weather events are becoming more extreme, and greenhouse gas emissions are now at the highest levels in history. Millions of people around the world have suffered and continue to suffer from extreme weather events. According to the Economic Losses, Poverty and Disaster Report published by the United Nations last year, between 1998 and 2017, some 1.3 million people lost their lives and 4.4 billion people were injured, rendered homeless, displaced, or in need of emergency assistance. Disaster Heat Countries reported direct economic losses of nearly $3 trillion, of which climate related disasters accounted for nearly $2.3 trillion, that is, 77% of the total. Indeed, according to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, between 2015 and 2018, we have witnessed an unprecedented series of the four warmest years on record. Year 2019 may be yet another milestone as the warmest year on record, largely as the result of a possible El Nino event. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC special report on global warming, which was published in October 2018, has confirmed the call which developing communities have been making over the past decades. I quote, climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth are projected to worsen with global warming of 1.5 degree Celsius, end of quote. The same report further highlighted that the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold could only be reached in about a dozen years from now, while the world is already on the three degree Celsius warming up trajectory. Ladies and gentlemen, we are just two months into 2019, and we are already witnessing a series of dreadful, unprecedented extreme weather phenomena across the planet. For instance, Australia sweltered through its hottest month on record in January. The heat waves have caused extensive wildfires, as well as massive losses of wild biodiversity in drought affected areas. At the same time, in the Northern Hemisphere, a bitter cold polar vortex hit Canada and the United States, with temperatures plunging as low as 50 degrees Celsius below zero and impacting millions of people. Mauritius is no exception. We are also being impacted regularly by extreme weather conditions. High intensity, short duration rainfall events are becoming more and more frequent. We have also been able to observe an uncommon situation of having two tropical cyclones, namely Gelina and Frunani, at the same time in the Mascarene region. The information and communication technology sector covers a wide range of technologies for gathering, storing, retrieving, processing, analyzing, and transmitting information in digital form. ICT is already being used as a crucial tool for climate change adaptation and mitigation. For instance, to improve our disaster risk reduction and management, an early warning system has been set up under the Adaptation Fund program. This system allows for the monitoring of and provides early warning for storm surges with three days probabilistic and six hours deterministic capability. So ICT is therefore being used in climate change mitigation processes to undertake vulnerability assessment works such as the identification of flood prone areas. Similarly, in order to evaluate greenhouse gas emissions, which is an obligation under the UNFCCC, special inventory software as well as geospatial techniques, also known as remote sensing technologies are used to estimate greenhouse gas removal from land areas covered with forests. This forum has brought together government representatives, regulatory authorities, representatives of the ICT industry, heads of United Nations organizations, other senior level participants and non-governmental organizations, as well as members from academia, media and other stakeholders. I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that it is the right platform to discuss opportunities and challenges, to share experiences, discuss policies and showcase the use of new technologies and services for disaster risk reduction and management. With these words, I will conclude by wishing all of you fruitful deliberations and to our foreign guests and delegates, please don't forget to enjoy Mauricio Soso. Thank you for your kind attention.