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I thank our hosts – the Egyptian government and COP27 President Sameh Shoukry – for their hospitality.
I also want to recognize Simon Stiell and the United Nations Climate Change team for all their efforts.
And I pay tribute to the delegates and members of civil society who came to Sharm el-Sheikh to push leaders for real climate action.
That is what we need.
COP27 took place not far from Mount Sinai, a site that is central to many faiths and to the story of Moses, or Musa.
It’s fitting. Climate chaos is a crisis of biblical proportions.
The signs are everywhere. Instead of a burning bush, we face a burning planet.
From the beginning, this conference has been driven by two overriding themes: justice and ambition.
Justice for those on the frontlines who did so little to cause the crisis – including the victims of the recent floods in Pakistan that inundated one-third of the country.
Ambition to keep the 1.5 degree limit alive and pull humanity back from the climate cliff.
This COP has taken an important step towards justice.
I welcome the decision to establish a loss and damage fund and to operationalize it in the coming period.
Clearly this will not be enough, but it is a much-needed political signal to rebuild broken trust.
The voices of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis must be heard.
The UN system will support this effort every step of the way.
Justice should also mean several other things:
Finally making good on the long-delayed promise of $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries;
Clarity and a credible roadmap to double adaptation finance;
Changing the business models of multilateral development banks and international financial institutions.
They must accept more risk and systematically leverage private finance for developing countries at reasonable costs.
But let’s be clear.
Our planet is still in the emergency room.
We need to drastically reduce emissions now – and this is an issue this COP…
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