Forty-fourth session of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation and
the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice
Bonn, 16 May 2016
Opening address by
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
H.E. Ms. Ségolène Royal, President of COP 21/CMP 11,
H.E. Mr. Salaheddine Mezouar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco,
SBI Chair Mr. Thomasz Chruszczow,
SBSTA Chair Mr. Carlos Fuller,
Distinguished delegates,
Dear friends one and all,
Today marks a new era for all of us.
Your Paris Agreement has been hailed as a historic achievement, and so it was. With the support of thousands of non-Party stakeholders, you were able to make the seemingly impossible become possible. You have brought down the many barriers that divided you. You have opened many opportunities that now unite you.
Together you all worked hard to construct a collective vision of transformation based on fairness and transparency, profoundly inspired by new prospects for growth. Now you must all work together to make that reality as compelling and transformative as your shared vision.
For years we focused on the conceptual constructs that undergird adaptation, mitigation, finance, technology and capacity building. It is now time to move beyond the theoretical concepts to the new reality that they represent.
Our new reality must protect the most vulnerable in every country, for it is they who are most impacted by increasingly extreme weather events and other climate impacts.
Our new reality must put the human being at the center of all development, for we do not plan for homes or roads, or bridges or power plants, as much as we plan to improve the lives of those who use that infrastructure.
Our new reality must decouple economic and social growth from greenhouse gas emissions, under the leadership of developed nations, and allow developing countries to strengthen their economies without compromising their natural capital.
Our new reality must restore land and water, sea and soil to healthy conditions that support sustained human existence.
Dear friends, leaving the phase of negotiations behind, this is a new era of collaboration. The whole world is united in its commitment to the global goals embodied in the Paris Agreement, as well as to the means by which to achieve them.
Most importantly perhaps, with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, you have opened the opportunity to meet the climate change challenge to a great extent by fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
All the components of the equation are now aligned. Now we must design the details of the path to the safe, prosperous climate-neutral future to which we all aspire.
I am confident that this group, which has already accomplished so much over so long, can continue to work together to turn the vision laid out in the Paris Agreement into the new reality. I am confident that you can continue to be inclusive of all countries and all stakeholders, leaving no one behind. And I am confident that the spirit of cooperation that saw success last December can carry us forward to Marrakech and beyond.
Thank you.
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Please note: This is prepared text of the speech and may differ from the delivered version.