Hon Simon Watts
Minister of Climate Change

Tēnā koutou katoa.

Mr President, Excellencies, Delegates.

New Zealand, and all nations represented here today, are already dealing with the impacts of climate change. Our households, businesses, and economies are bearing the costs of its effects. The choices we make now will shape the severity of these impacts for generations to come.

New Zealand is committed to meeting our climate targets and doing our part to reduce the impacts of climate change.

New Zealand is proud of the work we are doing with our partners particularly in the pacific to support their climate priorities. New Zealand is pioneering innovative, high trust approaches to climate finance including through Country Flexible Finance – which provides funding directly to our partners, so they can make their own choices in how that is allocated.

As we work to agree to a new global climate finance goal – we must ensure we deliver for small island developing states.

New Zealand has announced a $20 million dollar contribution to the Pacific Resilience Facility, a Pacific-owned, Pacific-led solution to building resilience.

And today, I am pleased to announce that New Zealand is also committing a further $10 million dollars to the global fund for Responding to Loss and Damage. New Zealand wants this fund to deliver effective support to some of the most affected communities, so they can recover from climate impacts and build stronger, more resilient communities.

Climate change presents a significant challenge to us all. While each country faces it own challenges and opportunities; we are all working toward the same goal to create a sustainable, resilient future.

The New Zealand Government has a Climate Strategy and plan to meet our targets to reduce the impact of climate change and prepare for its future effects.

Clean, abundant, and affordable energy is critical to New Zealand’s prosperity. New Zealand already has more than 85 percent renewable energy electricity; and we plan to double our renewable generation by 2050.

New Zealand is taking action to further improve the world-leading sustainability of our agricultural production. New Zealand’s farmers are some of the world’s most carbon efficient producers. Research and development to enable our farmers to deploy innovative agricultural mitigation solutions is happening in New Zealand.

Pricing emissions is a powerful tool. The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme, the 2nd oldest in the world has the broadest sectoral coverage of any such scheme in the world.

A year ago, the first global stocktake of the Paris Agreement issued us all a challenge. Parties individually, and collectively, have work to do, so that we realise the promise, to ensure prosperity, and protect our people and societies.

I am honoured that New Zealand, and New Zealanders – iwi / Māori, business, and civil society – are meeting this challenge head on with you.

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