COP26 President spoke today (1 June 2020)
at the opening ceremony of the June Momentum for
Climate Change, a series of online events hosted by the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC).
UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed, UNFCCC
Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, COP25 President
Minister Carolina Schmidt, and Subsidiary
Body Chairs Marianne Karlsen and Tosi Mpanu Mpanu
were also part of the panel for the online event.
Well, Melinda thank you very much for that and thank you
for channelling Winston Churchill in your introductory
remarks.
Firstly, let me just thank our presiding officers
Marianne Karlsen and of course Ambassador Tosi
Mpanu-Mpanu for convening this June Momentum for Climate
Change as well as of course Patricia and the UNFCCC
Secretariat for all their work in making this happen.
You’re absolutely right, I do have two hats that I come
to, they’re actually I don’t believe mutually exclusive
at all, they’re indeed complimentary. But, right now, the
immediate focus of course has been on fighting the
coronavirus pandemic in terms of the economic support
that we’re providing to businesses to safeguard jobs, so
not just lives but also livelihoods across our country
and I do believe the package of measures the UK has put
in place are substantial and on an international level
favourable.
But of course every country right now will be focused on
this, but I think as many colleagues have already said is
that what we mustn’t do is of course lose sight of the
huge challenges of climate change itself.
And I’m positive about us coming out of this with a green
recovery, I mean what we’ve shown in the UK is that we’ve
managed to grow our economy, our GDP, by 75% between 1990
and 2018 and at the same time we’ve managed to cut
emissions by 43%, so I sincerely believe it’s absolutely
possible to have green growth in our economies across the
world.
And of course, how we rebuild our economies is going to
have a really profound impact, in terms of our society’s
future sustainability, in terms of our resilience, indeed
the wellbeing of individuals across the globe and COP26
can actually be that moment when the world unites behind
a green and I think – really importantly - a fair
recovery.
As you know we’ve now got new dates agreed for COP26. I
want to thank all colleagues we’ve taken part in coming
to that particular agreement and of course we’re working
on an ambitious roadmap with partners in the lead up to
November 2021.
I’m absolutely committed in keeping the dialogue going, I
think it’s great that we’re continuing to hold these
events and I will stop at that point, I’ll have a chance
in a few minutes to set out our ambitions on the road to
COP26 but thank you so much for holding this event, it’s
so vital as we move forward
Thank you very much for that and it’s good to see Selwin
is also channelling Winston Churchill and I’m looking
forward to the next time we meet to come with my own
inspiring quote from Winston Churchill.
Look, as I said, I want to thank all our colleagues: the
COP Bureau, our Italian Partners, and everyone who’s
worked with us in arriving at the new dates for COP26. It
gives us a very clear destination and I think that was
always very important for us.
And of course, we all understand the extraordinary
circumstances that we’re in, as to why we’ve had to
postpone COP26 but again I just want to echo the words of
other colleagues here is that we’re absolutely not
postponing action on tackling climate change. Patricia,
Selwin have made this point very eloquently and as indeed
did Minister Carolina Schmidt and she repeated some of
what she said at the Petersberg Dialogue, which is so
important, where she made clear that the climate crisis
hasn’t taken time off but, and I think this is the
positive piece, there is still time for us collectively
to define the future.
And I can tell you as the incoming Presidency we’re
absolutely committed to working with all parties and
stakeholders to accelerate climate action this year and
of course in 2021 leading up to November.
And what we want ahead of COP26 is for all countries to
be submitting these ambitious NDCs, committing to further
cuts in carbon emissions by 2030. We want countries to
set out those longer-term visions for emissions
reductions, for ambitious long- term strategies, and
actually to step up action to help the most vulnerable in
society to adapt to the changing climate.
Developed countries absolutely have to meet and move
beyond this totemic $100bn per year climate finance goal.
And of course we need to make progress in other areas as
colleagues will know, there are five areas we are
particularly focused on in relation to COP26: firstly,
that transition to green energy; secondly, clean
transport; thirdly, nature-based solutions which is so
vital and allied with everything else we’re doing;
adaptation and resilience; and, of course, finance, which
ties all of this together.
And we will seek to progress all the issues mandated for
discussion within the UNFCCC process and let me give this
commitment that I will be working very closely with our
partners, Italy, with the Chilean COP25 Presidency and of
course the future African Presidency of COP27, the UNFCCC
and more broadly the UN family and indeed all Parties and
stakeholders to accelerate this action on climate change
we all want to see.
And I do want us to pursue a package that absolutely
unleashes the full potential of the Paris Agreement and
powers the UNFCCC process forward. We’re totally
committed to delivering on a really ambitious, inclusive
COP26 and we want to make sure that, actually, the voices
who are most affected by climate change are also heard
very, very loudly.
By the way we have managed to show that even in very
difficult circumstances we can continue our cooperation
as we’re doing today. My team has been consulting with
hundreds of parties or their representatives, as well as
stakeholders around the world. Many of us have taken part
in events, such as the Petersberg Dialogue, the Placencia
Forum, and of course I think as Patricia said we’ve all
come to appreciate ‘lemons’ but it’s also worth pointing
out that we hope that we can return to some, when we
return to some semblance of normality we can also meet
physically because that is absolutely vital as we
continue our dialogue.
And in the crucial stretch of time leading up to COP26,
we’re going to work with all the Parties to make progress
in the negotiations, including amongst others the 52nd
meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies in October and of course
the UN General Assembly annual meeting. And we do want to
have a roadmap which we’ve been discussing with
colleagues which sets out our ambitions to COP26. We’re
going to work through a whole range of multi-lateral and
regional events, the G7, the G20 meetings, the World Bank
annual meetings, and of course the CBD COP in China.
And we want to bring together not just countries, but
also non-state actors and other stakeholders and we want
to do this starting with the IEA Clean Energy Transitions
Summit, which I very much hope to attend next month.
And we will use our position as incoming Presidency to
convene parties at the highest levels to make progress at
key moments between now and November next year.
So what I would say to you ladies and gentlemen, friends
if I can call you that, which many of you already are,
and I’ve said this before but it is absolutely the case
that whether we live in the South, the North, the East or
the West we do share this one, fragile, life-giving
planet and of course we have a shared hope for a
prosperous future.
Working together, I think we can make progress faster
towards that clean, resilient recovery that we all want
to see and I look forward to welcoming you to COP26 but
also working with you very closely in terms of the
drumbeat of action needed leading up to November next
year. Thank you.
The June Momentum for Climate Change takes place from 1 to
10 June 2020 and offers an opportunity for Parties and
other stakeholders to continue exchanging views and sharing
information in order to maintain momentum in the UNFCCC
process and to showcase how climate action is progressing
under the special circumstances the world is currently
facing.
