Putting Price on Carbon Will Send Powerful Signal Encouraging Investment in Green Projects, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Climate Leaders Event

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed’s closing remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the Climate Leaders event:  “Mobilizing World Leaders towards Transformation”, in New York today:

This has been a very rich discussion.  I would like to thank you all.  I am sincerely grateful for your thoughtful contributions and concrete suggestions on how to increase and accelerate action.

Your presence sends an enormously powerful signal that we are all together in our battle against climate change.  All of you, without exception, reiterated commitment to implement the Paris Agreement.  I regret that some of you were not able to speak.  But, please be assured that the Secretary-General and I deeply appreciate your leadership.

I will not be able to cover all of what was said.  But, I will try to summarize what we just heard.  We heard from the Secretary-General, his commitment to climate and his intention to host a 2019 climate summit.  This is not a challenge or a problem for tomorrow — this is a problem for today.  He urged us to do all that we can, to avoid the tipping points.

We have also heard that as we address this challenge, there are plenty of opportunities.  This is a key message that came out of today’s discussion.  Climate change is an opportunity to take us towards a more sustainable future.

I thank all of you for responding to the Secretary-General’s call for leadership and action on the six areas that we think have potential to deliver results between now and the Secretary-General’s 2019 climate summit.

This conversation has confirmed that scaling up action in these areas can lead to results in the immediate future.  This is what we are looking for.  The array of solutions that you have been discussing today allows each of you to identify the best avenue for your country to achieve the common goals we have set.

Finance remains a key issue to address climate change.  Showing that finance is flowing in the right direction at the speed and scale required is critical to drive up ambition for both climate action and sustainable development.

We need everyone:  the Paris Agreement was created in the understanding that Governments alone cannot meet the challenge.  The role of the subnationals, as well as the role of the private sector and that of the civil society, needs to be recognized and fostered.

Putting a price on carbon will send a powerful signal to markets to align investments towards resilient green projects.  We need more markets covered and at the right price.  Climate change can cause severe losses.  The cost of the recent Hurricanes Harvey and Irma exceeds $200 billion.  We need to have the right facilities to cover for these risks.

And of course, we need to change towards clean energy as soon as possible. This will not be possible if we do not facilitate the deployment of appropriate technology at an affordable cost.  Technology will be key, not only for energy transition, but for the whole transformations of our economies into green resilient economies.

The challenge is enormous, but so are our capabilities when we act together. I look forward to working with you towards the 2019 climate summit where I hope that we can report progress to the world.  Thank you.