Dear friends, colleagues,
Let me start by wholeheartedly thanking the Presidency and Dr Sultan, you in particular, for your leadership, your vision and your tremendous tenacity, and that of your team, and the team of Simon Steill for all their work and all their contribution.
Dear friends,
We have found it a tremendous privilege to work alongside all of you from wherever you are, from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Asia, the Pacific, and the Middle East. To team up, to bridge the divide and to unite.
When we are all long gone, your children and our children’s children and their children will be there to deal with all the things that we have left for them, the good and the bad.
With them in mind and with that in mind, it makes this a day of gratitude. A day of solemn satisfaction and maybe also of silent determination. And a day to salute the fact that humanity has finally done what is long, long, long overdue.
30 years we’ve spent to arrive at the beginning of the end of fossil fuels. And to bridge our ambition on adaptation, finance, and mitigation. To get concrete and actionable on 1.5C as scientists have urged us to do for so long.
To all our friends around the world who will continue to need our help, the islands in particular, I want you to know that we will stand with you, in unity, during this transition, for as long as necessary.
Because prosperity, within the planetary boundaries, is there to be had for all of us.
Thank you!