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Delivered by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

29 November 2021

ESCAP ES

Ms. Ou Boqian, Secretary-General of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat,

Mr. Selwin Hart, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action and Assistant Secretary-General for the Climate Action Team,

Excellencies, distinguished delegates and experts, Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to welcome you all this Forum today.

The Glasgow Climate Pact adopted by COP-26 has landed us on a new common ground, well recognizing the need for rapid, deep and sustained emission cuts by 45 per cent by 2030 to the 2010 levels and to net zero around mid-century to keep alive the 1.5 goal.

China, Japan and the Republic of Korea are key players for this critical decade as the countries together account for over one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions.  There is no doubt that their climate actions will have an immensely positive impact on the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, the three countries have respectively committed in 2020 to the carbon neutrality goals amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and transferred such commitments to their updated Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.

But now we need decisive action to effectively achieve the goals and even shorten the timeline, as discussed in a recent report published by ESCAP with partners, Is 1.5°C within Reach for the Asia-Pacific Region?.

Zero carbon transition will anchor policy innovation in terms of the institutional framework, carbon pricing and finance, social innovation for mobilizing stakeholder participation, and technological innovation.

China, Japan and RoK could mutually share policy and social innovation practices and collaborate on developing low-carbon technologies and expanding markets for the rapid deployment of the technologies.

In this connection, trilateral cooperation among the countries could speed up actions in a more cost-efficient way.

Furthermore, given the different national circumstances, the diverse experiences and approaches taken by China, Japan, RoK will aspire to further actions in and beyond the Asia-Pacific region. As  major providers of international support in finance, technology, know-how and best practices in Asia-Pacific, the three countries could jointly mobilize regional cooperation for speeding up policy and technology development.

As recognized by the outcome of COP-26, multilateralism and international cooperation play a key role in achieving climate goals.

Promoting inclusive and networked multilateralism that involves every stakeholder, as called on by the Secretary General of the United Nations, is a key to enhancing climate actions at regional and global levels.

This is why we have forged this unique collaborative partnership with the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat and the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Action Team to hold this forum.

I wish the forum all the success in creating a platform to share policy practices and explore opportunities with great trust among countries and participating stakeholders on the carbon neutrality transition.

Thank you very much.

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