Simon Stiell – UNGA Event 2020

Source: Climate Vulnerable Forum

H.E. Simon Stiell, Hon. Minister for Climate Resilience, the Environment, Forestry, Fisheries and Disaster Management of Grenada

Climate Vulnerable Forum Leaders Event

October 7, 2020

Thank you very much Patrick,

On behalf of the people of Grenada, I wish to congratulate the Climate Vulnerable Forum, and the Global Center on Adaptation for convening this virtual leaders event today, focussed on the climate survival of vulnerable states.

The global response to the climate crisis is already inadequate with a call for additional resources to fight the COVID pandemic compounding our challenges.

However, 2020 has opened up an opportunity for all of us to make the changes that are required to tackle climate change, by incorporating climate action into the recovery plans for COVID-19 that we are all already working on.

There appears to be international consensus, with all development agencies now aligned in their thinking with regard to the way forward.

Whether that’s a green recovery, a blue recovery, building back better, building cleaner or building forwards – all the right words are there. The question is: will we?

This convergence in thinking, coincides with the timing of our obligations to enhance our National Determined contributions under the Paris Agreement.

Together, this has created a massive opportunity for developing more ambitious NDCs. Using these NDCs as a cornerstone for our national plans, in a way, would have been more difficult to achieve under a pre-COVID business as usual scenario.

But are we taking full advantage of this opportunity, or are we squandering it?

The data tells us the jury is still out, with less than half of the money pledged under these recovery plans targeting climate resilient development.

We must do better, and we can do better. As a global community, we must take this opportunity provided to strengthen the resilience of our vulnerable countries through a more focused adaptation action; ramping up programming that will respond to the loss and damage that we are already experiencing; and increasing the financial technological support, that is that is available to developing countries, both at scale and at speed.

We must also use COP26 to our advantage in this respect.

In closing, I applaud the Climate Vulnerable Forum once again for taking the lead in advocating through its member countries and moving in this direction, and its calls: a greater ambition.

I thank you.

Statement – Grenada