総会議長主催気候変動ハイレベル会合における星野大使ステートメント

Your Excellency, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the 73rd session of the General Assembly
Excellencies,
 
Climate change is one of the most serious challenges that pose threats to global security and economic prosperity. Currently, we see many transnational issues taking place; depletion of resources such as water and food due to repeated large-scale disasters and extreme weather, refugees and internally displaced persons caused by such depletion of resources. We must take actions immediately to tackle these big challenges for present and future generations in particular.
 
Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, parties strived for over three years to negotiate its implementation guidelines. These efforts culminated in the adoption of the Paris Agreement Implementation Guidelines. Now the world is entering into the stage of implementation.
 
This year, 2019, is a particularly important year for the world to be ready for operationalizing the Paris Agreement. But are we fully prepared for it? The international community will be holding a series of major international conferences and events this year regarding climate change including COP25, the UN 2019 Climate Summit, and the G20 under the Presidency of Japan. It is incumbent on the international community to commit itself to taking actions to address climate change towards the full implementation of the Paris Agreement in 2020.         
 
Today the world is rapidly changing. Climate actions are considered as no longer costs, but rather, a source of competitiveness. Based on this understanding, Japan, as holder of the G20 presidency in 2019, will take the lead in the following three important aspects: first, creating a virtuous cycle between environment and growth including through innovation; second, alignment with private financing, including investment; and third, collaboration with non-state actors.
 
Moreover, aiming to achieve decarbonization as well as other SDGs, Japan has developed a future vision named "Circulating and Ecological Economies - Localizing the SDGs." Under this vision, we will build self-reliant and decentralized communities that can make use of their own local resources and complement each other, while ensuring a high quality of life into the future and bringing about a shift towards a sustainable society.
 
Let me underline that what is needed most is the aforementioned virtuous cycle between the environment and growth, as well as a paradigm shift towards business-led innovation of technologies. For that to happen, as Prime Minister Abe called for at the World Economic Forum at Davos this year, we need “disruptive innovation” underpinned by greater resource mobilization. As an example of such “disruptive innovation”, Japan is aiming to drastically reduce the production cost of hydrogen by at least 90% by the year 2050 and to realize a hydrogen-based society. To that end, we need similar innovations to take place more and more often.
 
I would like to conclude my remarks by saying that Japan will continue to pursue efforts to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels through these initiatives and by spreading our innovation models to the world while utilizing new financial innovative frameworks.  I thank you.