Climate Change

Welcome and thank you for joining this virtual meeting, which is a demonstration of our shared commitment to multilateralism and our global partnership, even in these challenging times. 

I am particularly grateful to those colleagues who are joining from time zones very different from ours.

G20 RIYADH SUMMIT | SESSION II: BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE, SUSTAINABLE, AND RESILIENT FUTURE 
 
Our greatest defense against COVID-19 is solidarity and cooperation. 
 
In this context, G20 leadership is vital in three key areas. 
 
First, halting the further spread of the pandemic. 
 
Yesterday, I was encouraged by the broad recognition that vaccines – as well as tests and treatments – must be global public goods, available and affordable for all. 
 

Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for inviting me to speak today.

I will focus my remarks on the climate crisis and the need for heightened climate action.

Recently, we have seen recent encouraging responses.

The European Union, Japan and the Republic of Korea have pledged carbon neutrality by 2050, along with more than 110 other countries.

China says it will do so before 2060.

I thank the Government of Italy for convening this important conversation. 

And I thank the youth of our world – here and marching in the streets – for your inspiring engagement on the climate crisis. 

This is the most pressing issue of our time, especially for your generation. 

You are having a major impact, and we are starting to see signs that the tide is turning. 

Our goal is zero net emissions by 2050.  

We rely on young activists like yourselves to help us get there.  

Excellencies and Dear colleagues,

It is an enormous pleasure to join you and I'd like to start if you allow me on a personal note.

The best years of my life were the years I spent as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

One of the reasons why they were the best years of my life was because I was able to work so closely with multiple programmes, providing protection and assistance to the most vulnerable of the vulnerable people around the world.

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour to join you for the 11th ASEAN-UN Summit, and I want to congratulate Viet Nam for its solidarity as ASEAN Chair and as member of the UN Security Council

I wish to start by expressing my deepest condolences on the loss of lives caused by the recent floods and landslides in Viet Nam. The United Nations stands with you.

As we mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, the international community is facing a ‘perfect storm’:

A global pandemic.

The climate emergency.

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Excellences,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Five years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, we are still not on a trajectory that would enable us to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C.

To do that – and the scientific community keeps reminding us of this – we must at all costs reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

I would therefore like to use this opportunity to propose three lines of action:

Thank you very much. It’s an enormous pleasure to be back in the Caribbean even if it’s just virtually.  

I thank the Caribbean Community, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, and Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque, for your invitation.  

I’m indeed sorry that we cannot be together in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. But I welcome this opportunity to meet with you at such a crucial time.  

We are facing the greatest test of global solidarity in generations. 

Despite tremendous efforts to contain its spread, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world. 

Excellencies, dear Nordic friends,

It is an honour to speak to you today.

The Nordic countries are great friends of the United Nations and the causes of multilateralism and sustainable development.

Today, we meet in a time of great crisis and uncertainty.

The world is facing an unfolding pandemic that has exposed multiple weaknesses in our societies.

Meanwhile, climate change, which affects your nations acutely, is gathering pace.

Humanity is waging war on nature. 
 
We need to rebuild our relationship with it.
 
More than 60 per cent of the world’s coral reefs are endangered due to overfishing, destructive practices and climate change.
 
Wildlife populations are plummeting because of overconsumption, population growth and intensive agriculture.
 
And the rate of species extinction is accelerating, with some one million species currently threatened or endangered, as the President just said.