COP28 Presidency

cop 28 uae

COP28 President-Designate urges G20 nations to lead the way and demonstrate solidarity on climate action

  • There is still time for the G20 to show leadership, and I am calling on all of you to work with your leaders to drive global climate action in this critical decade.
  • Right now, many of the indicators are going in the wrong direction. Temperature records continue to be broken, with this month officially recorded as the hottest in history.
  • We are losing biodiversity. Agricultural land is being degraded. And food insecurity is increasing.
  • If we are going to make progress on adaptation, we first have to define what success looks like in terms of stopping biodiversity loss, restoring agricultural land, preserving forests, protecting coastlines, ensuring no-one goes hungry and safeguarding lives and livelihoods everywhere.
  • G20 nations should make transformation of food systems a top priority.
  • Your national adaptation plans and strategies should promote sustainable land use, leverage technologies to increase crop resilience, enhance nutrition and reduce the climate impacts of farming.
  • Doubling adaptation finance by 2025 is a critical first step but we need to look at directing a solid proportion of all climate finance toward adaptation responses.
  • Yet we must acknowledge that many vulnerable countries - in particular small island developing states and least developed countries - are already experiencing consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to.