According to the statement made by the Ministry, COP31 President Kurum is chairing the Pre-COP meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu before the negotiations in Antalya.
COP31 President and Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum shared the COP31 Action Agenda with the representatives of the Pacific region countries at the Pre-COP Stakeholder Meeting held in Fiji.
Stating in his speech that they wanted to draw the world's attention to the fight of the Pacific Islands against the climate crisis, Kurum stated that Fiji hosted the Pre-COP for the second time and that in the second 10 years, we entered a period where there was no more time.
Kurum pointed out that they talked about the possibility of the people living on these islands not being able to live in their own homes and cities in the future, and said, "That's why we hear the voices of Tuvalu, Fiji and the Pacific, and I would like to express this here, both on behalf of our Australian friends and on behalf of the COP31 Presidency, that we will fight this struggle with all our strength." shared his opinion.
Emphasizing that COP31 will be implemented on the basis of dialogue, consensus and action, Kurum continued as follows:
"We listen to the needs, try to act with consensus, and with action, we shout to the whole world that talking is over, action and concrete results must be realized. We see the COP31 Action Agenda as a fundamental part of this approach, but of course, not as a completed agenda, but as a framework that we will develop together. We have built our action agenda on 10 priority themes, 6 global targets, 11 initiatives and 13 supporting outputs. Our goal is to bring all elements together in a holistic implementation architecture that produces concrete results. Therefore, "We designed our action agenda not as a list of activities but as a holistic implementation framework that will transform goals into concrete results."
"We are creating an application architecture that turns action into tangible results"
Reminding that they have participated in many meetings, meetings and international summits to date, and most recently officially announced the COP31 Action Agenda in New York, the Institution stated that they received very positive and constructive feedback from countries, international organizations, financial institutions, private sector and civil society.
Underlining that the message given is extremely clear, the Authority said, "We should no longer be content with merely revealing our goals and commitments, but should focus more on how these goals will be implemented. With this understanding, we are actually positioning COP31 as the implementation COP." he said.
COP31 President Kurum shared the 10 priority themes of the Action Agenda and 6 implementation targets for 2035 with the participants.
The Authority informed that they determined the action agenda with 10 priority themes and said:
"We consider all themes, from energy to industry, from urbanization to food, from oceans to health, as a complementary whole. We see these themes as complementary parts of the climate and development transformation. In order to guide the implementation, we put forward 6 global targets with a 2035 perspective. To increase the share of electricity in final energy consumption to 35 percent, to reduce the projected increase in municipal waste generation by at least half, to reduce the energy intensity in buildings by 25 percent, to reduce the global circular material use rate." We aim to increase it to at least 15 percent. For this, we aim to expand this mechanism, which we call 'Implementation Bridge', by 2035. This table actually reveals the entirety of our action agenda. We support our 2035 targets with initiatives, mechanisms, commitments and partnerships that will achieve them. In short, with the COP31 Action Agenda, we are creating an implementation architecture that turns goals into action and action into concrete results.”
Minister Kurum reiterated his call for cooperation to ensure the success of COP31.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, Azerbaijan Presidential Special Representative for Climate Issues Muhtar Babayev, Australian Minister of Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, Fiji Minister of Information, Environment and Climate Change Lynda Tabuya were also present at the meeting.
