Thank you, Christoph, Barbara for convening us today.
I thank Minister Schulze, COP26 Minister/President-designate Alok Sharma, and DSG Amina Mohammed for their comprehensive updates on the Petersburg Climate Dialogue.
We are very encouraged by the renewed political momentum at the dialogue to advance our fight against climate change; and to hear now the Ministers and DSG reiterate their strong commitment for action. Our Environment Secretary was at the Dialogue, where we shared our priorities for COP-26.
As the current President of the 48-member cross-regional CVF, we wish to engage constructively with other partners to make COP-26 a success. Success will however, primarily depend on concrete deliverables and breakthroughs, especially in the areas of emission reduction, climate financing, technology transfer, loss and damage etc. I thank the Ministers and DSG for highlighting those issues. Allow me to briefly reiterate our priorities.
First, I am adding our voice to the urgent call to limit global warming by 1.5 degree centigrade. The advanced economies account for 78 per cent of these emissions. We expect ambitious emission reduction plans from them in Glasgow along with a transparent verifications mechanism to achieve net zero emissions.
Second, as DSG reminded us now, that we will need a transformative shift in climate financing. Commitments to fulfill the 100 billion dollars climate financing target is needed urgently; especially in the forms of concessional financing and grants; and to ensure 50-50 balance of climate financing on mitigation and adaptation.
Technology transfer issue must also take a meaningful turn now. It is not enough to fund small scale research and pilot projects. We wish to see adequate finance for meaningful transfer of climate technologies to the most vulnerable countries.
Third, the pandemic has put a sharp spotlight on the nexus between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. The increased frequency of climate induced disasters has disproportionately affected climate vulnerable countries in the pandemic. It is, therefore, imperative to enhance adaptation capacities of the climate vulnerable countries, especially to tackle the double jeopardy of such pandemic and disaster.
The pandemic also revealed the strong correlation between climate change effects and health emergencies, which have further challenged the already fragile public health infrastructure in many countries, including my own. There is an urgent need to support efforts for capacity building and technology support to the health sectors of the most vulnerable countries.
Fifth, we also wish to engage constructively on all unresolved issues of Article-6 of the Paris Agreement.
We would also like to see constructive and productive dialogue in narrowing down our gaps on loss and damage issue.
Finally, the preparations for the COP-26 and the LDC5 conference are going on in parallel. We must seize this opportunity to provide special attention to the particular vulnerabilities of the LDCs in COP-26 Agenda and vice-versa.
I thank you all.