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EU General Statement – UN General Assembly 2nd Committee: Protection of global climate for present and future generations of humankind

28.11.2022
New York
Press and information team of the Delegation to the UN in New York

23 November 2022, New York – European Union General Statement on behalf of the EU and its Member States, at the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Second Committee Agenda Item 18(d): Protection of global climate for present and future generations of humankind.

Madam Chair, I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, and the potential candidate countries Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia align themselves with this statement.

I would like to express our gratitude to facilitator Costa Rica.

COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh has just ended a few days ago.

At the COP, the EU and its Member States have explained how we will go beyond our NDC and increase ambition. We have made new commitments on climate finance, including for loss and damage. With the African Union, we have announced a new Team Europe Initiative on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in Africa.

We hope others are willing to do the same. Because protecting our planet for future generations requires strong common global action.

We are therefore glad that in this year’s climate resolution we have managed to improve on our text of last year.

We would like to highlight the following positive points in this year’s resolution:

  • We all recognize that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius requires rapid, deep and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, including reducing CO2-emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 relative to 2010, and to net zero around mid-century;
  • We strengthen our joint commitment to regularly update NDCs, so that they reflect the highest possible ambition;
  • We collectively reaffirm our Glasgow commitment on the phase-down of unabated coal power and phasing-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies;
  • We will do this while providing targeted support to the poorest and most vulnerable.
  • We will double adaptation finance from 2019 to 2025;
  • We will integrate nature-based solutions, ecosystem-based approaches, and other management and conservation approaches in line with UNEA 5/5 into climate planning;
  • And we have underlined the links between climate change, food systems, oceans and water.

Because of these and other improvements, the EU and its Member States join consensus today on this important resolution.

Regrettably, despite a concrete proposal to return to consensus-based language, this resolution still contains language which is not universally agreed. We had therefore to vote on this particular paragraph. We hope that going forward we can return to consensus-based language on climate change, which requires collective action.

We are looking forward to jointly strengthening climate action in the years to come. We believe that this resolution provides a solid foundation to do so within the UN framework.

I thank you, Madam Chair.