Delivered By: Ms. Reem AlAmeri, Third Secretary

Thank you, Ambassador Yıldız, for convening this meeting, and thank you Mr. President-designate for the briefing. Once again, the United Arab Emirates extends congratulations on your appointment. We are of course very familiar from COP28 with the responsibilities that the role entails, as well as the unique opportunities that it presents – we will be ready to support over the full year ahead.

We commend you for taking the time for this meeting: for COP28 one of the key roads to success across all themes was early planning, so it is excellent to hear that the plans for COP31 are developing well.

In recent years, the outcomes achieved from Baku and Belem benefited from the efforts of successive presidencies to build coherently on the work of previous COPs. This continuity proved valuable both in negotiations and across the action agenda. We welcome COP31 continuing this approach, including by maintaining a clear focus on implementation, delivery, and complementarity across the wider multilateral calendar.

We welcome continued efforts to accelerate effective implementation of the UAE Consensus and its Global Stocktake outcomes, alongside advancing adaptation and resilience through the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, including through scaled-up means of implementation. COP28 also advanced on several thematic priorities through the Action Agenda that we would welcome to be featured once again. In particular, we see strong value in continued attention to water, food systems, and agriculture, including integrated water management as central to climate resilience and sustainable adaptation.

As the 2026 United Nations Water Conference approaches, which the UAE will co-host with Senegal in Abu Dhabi at the end of the year, there is a real opportunity to build complementarity between both processes and translate climate ambition into practical progress on water resilience, food security, ecosystems, and implementation of SDG 6, including through partnerships, finance, and innovation.

Climate, Peace and Security is another theme which has continued to grow in relevance since COP28’s Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace. In this regard, we would support continued attention to this agenda at COP31, including consideration of dedicated space within the programme to advance practical outcomes on climate, peace and security.

In each of these cases, progress was helped by the dedicated thematic days on these themes. We also placed a significant focus from the outset on raising funds for implementation in these fields. We would encourage continued emphasis on mobilizing finance and delivering tangible implementation outcomes across these priority areas.

A final reflection to share is that one of the key ingredients to achieving COP28’s outcomes was inclusivity. We greatly benefitted from extensive consultations with Member States, civil society, women, Indigenous Peoples and youth throughout the year in the build-up to COP.

We would encourage this same spirit of openness and inclusivity to remain central to preparations for COP31, including through meaningful engagement with youth and other non-Party stakeholders, and ensuring continuity with existing youth engagement tracks. In this regard, we are also greatly pleased that Australia has begun the process of selecting the Presidency Youth Climate Champion for COP31, whose work we will be pleased to support as well.

Thank you once again, Your Excellency, for the briefing, and we look forward to remaining closely engaged.