Athens , 12 February 2008

Mr. President,

Congratulations for organizing this important debate on climate change.

Climate change is one of the greatest and certainly most complex challenges that the international community has to deal with today and in the years to come. Climate change is already an environmental, social and economic reality. And most of its consequences within the next few decades will occur no matter what we decide to do today to mitigate the problem of emissions. There are two time lags involved here. One is the time lag between policy decisions and policy implementation. The second time lag is inherent to the phenomenon itself.

Climate change is a global problem and can not be addressed by the efforts of any single country or group of countries. Everyone’s emissions are influencing everybody else on this planet. This means that any individual, organization, or country that is not participating in our common effort to meet this challenge, is at the same moment both taking advantage of and undermining this global endeavour.

Our task becomes all the more difficult since we need to find a global compromise that takes into consideration the various perspectives of all stakeholders. The different contribution to the problem between developed, developing and least developed countries, the different historic emissions contributions between countries, the different priorities and attitudes, the different economic, social and environmental impacts, the different adaptation capacities, and keep, at the same time, the growth rates and the increase in development assistance and cooperation needed, to achieve the MDG’s.

In Bali a positive step was taken. We agreed to launch formal negotiations on a global agreement for the period after 2012 and to end these negotiations in 2009.

How can we achieve this monumental task. Developed countries bear most of the responsibility. Fast growing economies in the developing world, where most of the world development will occur in the next decades, have to do their part. And the rest of the developing world, especially the Least Developed Countries and the Small Island States, has also to be actively involved in the negotiation.

The Least Developed Countries, lacking the capacity to deal with the negative effects of climate change, are and will be affected the worst, although they have played a minor role in the creation of the problem. These countries, having the indisputable moral high ground, can play a catalyst’s role to the successful outcome of our negotiation.

Coming now to the specific vehicles that we can use, I would like to briefly refer to Public Private Partnerships, which can be a very useful tool for implementing our efforts to address climate change, especially in the areas of mitigation and technology transfer. Involving the private sector in this way permits us to share with him goals, resources, knowledge and expertise, while it greatly diminishes the political risks involved in the huge -trillion dollar- investments that have to be made to move towards a carbon free global economy. Investments that can be paid back only in the long run and thus need the reassurance of a stable political environment and of the contractual obligations of the states involved, created within the PPP context.

Mr. President,

We welcome the report of the Secretary-General on United Nations activities in relation to climate change. The UN system can and should play a pivotal role in addressing this challenge. But it is also crucial for member states to do their share both at the domestic and the international level.

For Greece’s government, environmental policy is central in our efforts. We believe that growth and the environment can never be treated as two separate, unrelated fields. So we have revised our National Programme for the reduction of greenhouse gases to absolutely ensure the achievement of our European Union and international obligations. Greece is fully consistent with its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, and the government will further intensify its efforts -not just complying with Kyoto and EU policies- but because we consider it as our moral obligation. Renewable energy is also crucial for Greece and towards this a special spatial planning law will help raise the production of alternative 'green' energy to 20% in 2010 and 30% in 2020. Also recycling has increased from 6% of all waste to 24% in the last three years.

As far as the efforts at the international level we believe that the United Nations system, apart from its crucial role towards achieving and implementing a new global agreement for the post 2012 period, should also continue to be actively involved in assisting member states in the promotion of their climate change policies and the implementation of any relevant initiatives at the regional or international level.  

Greece is active at that level too. The current Greek Chairmanship of Human Security Network has adopted as its main priority the impact of climate change on human security and in particular on vulnerable population groups, such as women, children and people fleeing their homes due to climate change. Relevant policy papers and initiatives are being prepared in cooperation with UNICEF, the United Nations University, the International Organization for Migration and other international partners.

Our priority has also a regional dimension. We intend to concentrate on Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, where significant resources into financing adaptation efforts should be committed. In this respect and believing in the importance of enhancing regional cooperation on adaptation, we have already earmarked funds, in order to finance adaptation projects in the LDCs (Least Developed Countries) and the SIDS (Small Island Developing States) in Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean, in cooperation with and through relevant regional organizations.

Mr. President,

The challenge of climate change is the historic challenge of our generation. We must meet it working together, with common purpose and determination.