Mr. Weimin MAO, Governor of Hunan Provincial Government, PRC,
Mr. Wenhao CHEN, Vice Governor of Hunan Provincial Government, PRC,
Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning/good afternoon/good evening/good day to all of you, wherever you may be. It is my honor to welcome all of you to this Asia-Pacific Forum on Green Low Carbon Development.
Unfortunately, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has meant that I am unable to travel to Changsha and join you in person. COVID-19 has been a horrible tragedy but we should understand it for what it is, a tragedy in its own right but also a dress rehearsal for an even greater challenge, the looming climate crisis, which is in fact the focus of this Forum.
Extreme climate events like heatwaves, floods, and droughts are happening now and will continue to increase and will continue to increase and intensify if global carbon emissions are left unchecked. It was only in last July that we saw the severe rainfall and flooding in Zhengzhou city, when the equivalent of a year's average rainfall fell in just three days, and resulted in almost 300 lives lost.
The newly published IPCC Report confirms that man-made warming of climate is intensifying, and thereby increasing the severity of very wet and very dry weather. The report makes an urgent call for rapidly reducing GHG emissions to meet the Paris Agreement goals.
We are already seeing action. More than 130 countries have announced their targets of carbon neutrality between 2050 and 2060. President Xi Jinping announced in September 2020 that the PRC will enhance its climate ambition and make efforts to peak CO2 emission before 2030, achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. The Republics of Korea and Japan have also announced goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. We commend the leadership of East Asian countries in fighting climate change. The recent meeting of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action emphasized the role of Ministries of Finance to help combat climate change, support just and affordable transitions to low-carbon economic growth.
The upcoming COP-26 meeting of the UNFCCC in Glasgow will provide a unique opportunity to further build global momentum to accelerate the fight against climate change. We urge the global community to seize this momentum and upscale their climate commitments and actions. It is critical that we transition from a negative to positive agenda on climate change.
ADB is proactively supporting its member countries in the fight against climate change. Our corporate Strategy 2030 and our country partnership strategy for PRC both prioritize climate change, disaster resilience and environmental sustainability. Recognizing the need to support urgent and scaled-up climate investments, we are elevating our ambition to provide $100 billion in cumulative climate finance from our own resources during 2019 to 2030.
We are also working hard to leverage our unique intangible assets of knowledge, trust, and convening authority in order to drive greater support for climate and climate finance related actions, for example, we recently launched a new sustainable infrastructure platform and a new climate innovation fund with external partners.
We are working closely with the Governments of Indonesia and the Philippines on a exciting new initiative, the Energy Transition Mechanism. This Mechanism is a blended finance solution that leverages its lower cost of capital from concessionary funds into a reduced working life for coal-fired power plants. We view this as a locally tailored, replicable, scalable, market-based and fair mechanism for accelerating carbon transition. ADB plans to officially launch a partnership for the ETM at COP-26.
In October 2020, ADB approved the first low carbon city project, located in Hunan Province. This $200 million initiative supports the Xiangtan municipal government in creating a model for low-carbon, resilient, and livable city transformation. In fact, the Xiangtan Project germinated from this Asia-Pacific Forum on Low Carbon Technology held in 2016, that event featured global innovation practice for low carbon city development.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As we say in ADB, the battle for climate change will be won or lost in the Asia-Pacific. I am of the firm belief that introducing and scaling-up new low-carbon technologies is the key to solving the climate crisis. I am happy to note that this year’s Forum will discuss progress on advanced technologies for achieving carbon peaking and neutrality.
Building public and private sector collaboration is critical for the discovery and deployment of these technologies. Our Forum provides an excellent opportunity for doing just this with both private sector innovators and public sector policy makers in attendance to discuss technology solutions to address climate change.
I would like to take this opportunity once again to thank Governor Weimin MAO and Vice Governor Wenhao CHEN for their leadership and cooperation in working with ADB to host this flagship Forum. Thank you also to my colleagues at ADB for working hard and for overcoming many difficulties on the path to this Forum today so that we could all participate in this useful and constructive sessions.
Finally, let me conclude my remarks by requesting all of you to actively join the discussions and generously share from your wisdom – together let us make every effort to make this an unforgettable and very knowledgeable low carbon Forum!
Thank you so much, it’s a pleasure to be with you virtually.