Speaking to G7 climate, energy and environment ministers today, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa called on G7 nations to urgently boost climate action and improve their climate plans and strategies.
“Climate change is not an agenda item we can afford to push back on our global schedule. We need your decisions and your action now,” Ms. Espinosa said.
The G7 environment, climate and energy ministers – from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America – are meeting in Berlin, Germany, from 25 to 27 May.
The meeting is taking place against a backdrop of accelerating climate impacts, inadequate levels of ambition on the part of governments to tackle climate change and massive geopolitical challenges.
Under the Paris Climate Change Agreement, nations are required to clearly show — through specific climate action plans known as Nationally Determined Contributions — how they intend to implement the agreement.
The commitment to meeting the central Paris Agreement goal of holding global average temperature rise to below 1.5C through the Glasgow Climate Pact entails accelerated action and increased climate ambition.
However, halfway through this year, the world has not yet seen plans showing sufficient action.
"We are at a critical point in our process and we require strong leadership, bold decisions and resolute actions," she said.
Ms. Espinosa laid out a concrete list of priorities, specifically calling on G7 nations to move on issues related to national climate plans, and on finance and adaptation.
See the statement below:
Ministers;
It’s a special pleasure to join you here in Germany, the host nation of UN Climate Change and the chair of this important meeting on Climate and Energy at the midpoint of a very challenging year.
These are testing times. As a career-long diplomat, ambassador and former minister, I appreciate the complexity of the decisions you and your governments are currently facing on several fronts.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has unleashed violence and destruction on innocent people. It is disrupting global energy markets. It is leading to a global food crisis. It is sapping the finance needed to green economies and build resilience.
But it has not changed the reality of climate change, nor the imminent threat it poses to all countries.
At our current trajectory, global temperatures will rise 3.2C by the end of this century.
Two weeks ago, the WMO noted that there is a 50/50 chance we hit the 1.5°C mark — at least temporarily — in the next five years.
This is not what was agreed in Paris. It is not what you reaffirmed last November at COP26 in Glasgow.
Climate change is not an agenda item we can afford to push back on our global schedule. We need decisions and actions now.
And while climate change is the responsibility of all nations, you have both a special responsibility and a unique opportunity to provide leadership on the road to and at COP27.
First, we need more ambitious Nationally-Determined Contributions and Long-Term Plans.
While G7 nations have submitted their NDCs, the job is not done. Commitments are not yet sufficient to meet the challenge at hand.
And the number of long-term strategies submitted or communicated to the secretariat represent only about one-third of all Parties to the Paris Agreement.
This is not about pointing fingers, it is about pointing out that the world remains in an extremely dangerous situation.
As a key to success for COP27, I urge you to boost those plans, to highlight this commitment in the upcoming communique in June and to include it on the agenda at the G20 meetings as well.
Finance is also key to success at COP27 with the $100-billion pledge as a long-outstanding item to be fulfilled.
The Climate Finance Delivery Plan in Glasgow was encouraging, but nations must deliver on it. The future of the process depends on this.
We also need to double the provision of adaptation finance and to replenish the Green Climate Fund.
Multilateral development banks, international financial institutions and the private sector must all step up their efforts in support of the transition to a green, circular, sustainable economy.
Nations must also make progress on defining the global goal for adaptation.
At COP27, implementation in this area will be crucial, particularly with respect to finalizing national adaptation plans.
And we need to have a decision on institutional arrangements for the Santiago Network, aimed at averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage.
Ministers,
We are at a critical point in our process and we require strong leadership, bold decisions and resolute actions.
This is the only way to live up to your commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Thank you.
