Climate Change

I am very pleased to visit this climate mitigation project, which is very symbolic] and especially because it is in the context of an ASEAN Summit that as sustainability as its main issue for discussion. And the biggest threat to sustainability today in the world is climate change.
 

I am very pleased to visit this climate mitigation project, which is very symbolic] and especially because it is in the context of an ASEAN Summit that as sustainability as its main issue for discussion. And the biggest threat to sustainability today in the world is climate change.
 

Your Excellency, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand,
Excellencies,
 
Let me begin by expressing my appreciation to the government and people of Thailand for your warm welcome and your leadership as the 2019 Chair of ASEAN. 
 
I thank you for your focus at this Summit on ‘Advancing partnership for sustainability’.  
 
Excellencies,
 
We are facing tense and turbulent times around the globe. 
 

Ladies and gentlemen of the media thank you very much for your presence.
 
I want first of all to express my gratitude to the government and people Thailand for their extremely warm hospitality.
 
I want to say that I am extremely happy with the UN ASEAN summit that had just finished. Two years ago, I asked for a quantum leap in relations between ASEAN and the UN and we can, today, verify that that a quantum leap happened.
 

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
I am encouraged that this coalition, launched just six months ago, now has 44 members.  Your efforts, under co-chairs Chile and Finland and with the support of the World Bank, are a vital part of our response to the climate emergency.
 
We are at a turning point.
 
Last month’s Climate Action Summit showed that the world is waking up to the crisis.
 
Leaders, businesses and others stepped up in impressive ways.
 
Looking ahead, I see great opportunities:
 

Excellencies,
Ministers,
Colleagues,

I welcome this opportunity to address the Small States Forum.

I would like to use the occasion to echo the strong calls made at last month’s Climate Action Summit and Review of the SAMOA Pathway for Small Island Developing States.  

The survival of many small countries, and particularly island states, depends on finding innovative and effective solutions to challenges that threaten their very existence.  

I would like to mention three such challenges and solutions, starting with the climate crisis.

Thank you, dear Special Envoy [for Climate Action] Mike Bloomberg, for your introduction, but especially for your leadership in climate action. 
 
This is my first international visit since the Climate Action Summit in New York – and it is fitting that it is here in Denmark. 
 
Copenhagen is a global climate action leader.
 
And the C40 is where the world’s mayors are showing they are at the forefront of tackling the climate emergency.
 

It is a pleasure to be visiting Denmark, a very good friend of the United Nations and a strong supporter of international cooperation.
 
The Prime Minister and I had productive discussions on a wide range of challenges, but of course the climate crisis was high on the agenda.
 
I had the occasion to thank Denmark for hosting today’s gathering of mayors from 70 of the world’s leading cities, known as C40, an important follow-up o the Climate Action Summit that was convened in New York just two weeks ago. 
 

Dear friends, allow me to start by confessing my original sin.
 
I have almost 30 years of political engagement in my own country and I never became a mayor.
 

Dear friends,
 
In planning this Summit, I had one overriding objective. 
 
This had to be a Summit of action plans, not platitudes. 
 
I thank you for delivering. 
 
You understand that climate emergency is the fight of our lives, and for our lives.
 
I thank young people around the world for leading the charge – and holding my generation accountable.
 
We have been losing the race against climate crisis.  But the world is waking up.