Commissioner Roswall's speech at the Clean Growth Summit – Road to COP31

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests,

Mayor Araújo, Professor Arezes, dear Lidia – thank you for the invitation.

I am delighted to be here in beautiful, historic Guimarães.

This is a perfect place to hold a discussion on clean growth – and on the type of future we want to build.

Guimarães, the European Green Capital, is a beacon for the rest of Europe.

Rich in history and tradition – but with a clear vision for a sustainable future.

After the summer we just experienced, this vision is more important than ever.

Much of Portugal is gripped by severe drought – like a lot of Europe.

But only a few months ago, deadly storms turned Portuguese streets into rivers and turned your rivers into raging torrents.

It shows the complexity of the challenges ahead. And it illustrates what's at stake as we gather in Antalya for COP31 this year.

Today, I want to talk about our priorities for COP31.

And I want to show how closely interlinked our climate agenda is with our environmental priorities, our economy, and our resilience.

We're battling wildfires and extreme heat.

Shrinking natural resources, and greater demand for critical raw materials.

And the impact on our economy, our food and energy security, our trade, and our health, is enormous

Extreme heat alone is costing EU economies around 180 billion euros this year.

So, the bad news is stark. But the good news is simple. We know what we need to do.

There is no such thing as sustainable, long-term growth, unless we tackle these issues head on.

In a world of geopolitical tension, volatile commodity prices and growing pressure on critical raw materials, circularity is not just an environmental choice.

It is an economic necessity – and a growth strategy for Europe.

Today, we import many of the materials on which modern industry depends.

So, we need to extract more value from the resources already in our economy.

That means investing in eco-design, material efficiency and innovative business models.