We can’t all meet in person today.
It is only right that we follow the best scientific
advice on COVID-19 and do everything we can to avoid the
spread of this deadly disease.
We must also follow the best scientific advice on climate
change.
It tells us failure to act will have irreversible
consequences.
As temperatures continue to rise, droughts and heatwaves
will become more common.
Crops will fail.
Sea levels will rise.
Hurricanes will become stronger and more intense.
Lives will be lost.
Communities uprooted.
Nature and biodiversity will be devastated.
And a catastrophic economic cost will be exacted.
We know that many people are already feeling these
devastating effects.
Whether we live in the South or the North, the East or
the West, we share one life-giving but fragile planet.
And all our futures are intrinsically linked.
As incoming Presidency, with our partners Italy, we
pledge to keep a focus on increasing climate ambition and
action, even through this very difficult period.
I wanted to commend Belize for its leadership in hosting
the Forum and ensuring the voices of the most vulnerable
are heard.
The Placencia Ambition Forum serves as a timely reminder
that climate change is an existential issue.
The world needs to see more ambition to tackle the
climate crisis. More ambition on adaptation and
resilience, more ambition on mitigation, and more
ambition on support to vulnerable countries. And that
ambition needs to translate into real world action.
Every country must come forward with the highest possible
ambition in their nationally determined contributions and
long-term strategies.
I want to recognise those countries that have already
shown leadership with more ambitious NDCs - the Marshall
Islands, Suriname, Norway and, of course, just recently,
Chile.
I hope many more will follow in their footsteps. The UK
will play its part and come forward with an increased NDC
well ahead of COP26.
Together we can build resilience in our communities,
societies and economies, creating jobs and tackling
climate change.
Our Presidency is committed to raising the voices of
those most affected, but least able to address climate
change. We will work to ensure these communities are
supported to recover in a clean, resilient, inclusive and
healthy way.
To do so we need to transform global financial flows. We
will use our presidency to unlock action by the financial
sector.
I look forward to welcoming you to COP26.
The focus of the forum is to drive climate action and
ambition in Nationally Determined Contributions in the lead
up to COP26 and beyond
in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
