Remarks by Commissioner Hoekstra at the Leaders' Plenary at the pre-COP31 meeting

It is a great honour to be here today. It is hugely important for the European Union as we seek to strengthen our  strong bonds with our partners in the Pacific.

I want to warmly congratulate you on the organisation of the pre-COP and thank you Tuvalu, Fiji and Australia for welcoming us in what clearly is one of the world's climate frontiers.

It was a privilege to go to beautiful Tuvalu today, but it also showed us the intimidating reality of losing your land.

This is not an incident, an anomaly or a one off. As the Prime Minister said, it is a bellwether, a proxy for what awaits all of us.

Please allow me to make three quick points.

One, the European Union will continue its unwavering support for the islands in the Pacific, the Caribbean and beyond.

We commend the strength, the courage, and the leadership of their advocacy for climate action – and Europe will stand shoulder to shoulder in jointly enhancing climate action.

No matter how difficult that may be in today's fractured world, full of hesitation and outright denialism.

Two, our responsibility is to continue to cut our emissions rapidly and deeply.

It's important to recall that every fraction of a degree has increasing negative impacts on our health, our economy, our security and our prosperity.

As we look towards COP31, we call upon all Parties to focus on getting the world onto a pathway, which will limit the overshoot.

For the European Union, staying as close as possible to 1.5 degrees and getting back below 1.5, remains the non-negotiable goal.

That means pushing ambitious NDCs. That means embracing everything science tells us.  And that means doing whatever we can on clean electrification in Antalya.