Mr. President of the General Assembly, Colleagues,

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

The Candidate Countries Montenegro*, Serbia^*, Albania^*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina^*, the potential candidate country Georgia, as well as Andorra, and San Marino align themselves with this statement.

The EU and its Member States would like to express our appreciation for this informal plenary meeting of the General Assembly. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our times.

The global consensus of the scientific community on climate change and its effects, as reflected in the IPCC scientific reports, cannot be contested. Record breaking extremes affect communities on every continent, in the context of record levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Coastal areas are particularly affected through sea-level rise and are highly vulnerable. According to an IPCC estimate, sea-level rise risks forced human displacement up to 340 million people by 2050 and 630 million people by 2100.[1] Decisive urgent action is necessary to mitigate these effects.

With the above in mind, I will limit my intervention to two important points:

(a) the question of the legal effects of sea-level rise to baselines and maritime zone, and

(b) the needed acceleration of greenhouse gas emissions reductions by all countries.

First, with regard to the key issues of the legal stability with a focus on baselines and maritime zones, and of the immutability and intangibility of boundaries, I recall the position of the European Union and its Member States that was most recently expressed with our Statement delivered during the International Law Week. Suffice it to reiterate here the following. While the principle that “land dominates the sea” is an underlying premise for the attribution of maritime zones, this does not, however, necessarily imply that coastal States would be legally obliged to periodically review and update their charts and coordinates that they have drawn (or agreed) and duly published in accordance with the relevant provisions of UNCLOS. There are indeed major legal and policy reasons to recognise the stability provided for by the maritime delimitations established either by treaty or by adjudication.

Secondly, there is an urgent need to strengthen the global response to the climate emergency by significantly accelerating greenhouse gas emission reductions by all countries and adaptation action. This is the only way to limit the effects of sea-level rise. The world’s collective net-zero ambitions have the potential to reduce temperature rise significantly, but actual policies and investments remain vastly insufficient to stay safely within the Paris temperature goal. All major economies have a special responsibility to enhance their climate ambition. From the side of the EU and its Member States, we have been taking strong and ambitious mitigation action aiming to reduce our net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, to reach and achieve climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest, and to aim for negative emissions thereafter. At the same time, as expressed in a number of submissions to ITLOS in Case No. 31 on Climate Change and International Law, there can be no pretext for anyone, including current high emitting States – even if generally still considered as developing States – to escape their obligations. We look forward to significant and ambitious decisions to be taken at the forthcoming COP28 in Dubai.

Mr. President,

Before concluding, I would like to recall that the EU and its Member States are the world’s biggest contributor of climate finance and a major humanitarian donor, supporting disaster risk reduction, anticipatory action, adaptation and mitigation efforts. We will remain committed to be at the forefront of the collective effort to scale up adaptation finance and call on all partners, from all regions that are in a position to do so, to provide enhanced and additional support for climate action.

To conclude, the urgency for the international community as a whole to act even more decisively to address the effects of climate change, in particular of sea-level rise, cannot be overstated. The European Union and its Member States are determined to stay the course and scale up their own efforts in this regard together with those of their partners.

Thank you for your attention.

*Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

[1] IPCC, 2019: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate: sea level will continue to rise to around 0.3 metre by 2050 and 2 metres by 2100 under the very high greenhouse gas emissions scenario – risking forced human displacement – up to 340 million people by 2050 and 630 million people by 2100.