The UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri highlighted the importance of collective action and collective finance to strengthen sustainable development and called upon G20 countries to fulfil their commitment to providing the pledged financial support for global climate initiatives.  

The Minister addressed the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Ministerial Meeting in Chennai, India, where she reinforced the UAE's commitment to environmental and climate sustainability at two key meetings. 

The Ministerial Meeting, held on the final day of the three-day Fourth Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) Meeting under India’s G20 Presidency, was attended by India’s Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, HE Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and COP28 President-Designate and other distinguished representatives from around the world. 

At Session I – ‘Environment and Climate Sustainability: Climate Change, Ocean/Blue Economy, Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy’, HE Almheiri highlighted the UAE's commitment to addressing climate change and to ensure that 2023 is a milestone moment in climate action as host of COP28. 

HE Mariam Almheiri said: “I want to take this opportunity to focus on two key principles, which are integral to addressing climate change – number one is collective action and number two is collective finance. Just recently, the UAE has taken a bold and progressive step of publishing a Third Update to its Second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). I am proud to say that so far, we have set our goal of achieving 40% per cent carbon emissions reduction by 2030, versus business as usual, in line with our pathway to achieve Net Zero by 2050.” 

She underlined the collective responsibility to push our ambition as much as possible for it is only by collective action that a global community can achieve the global emission reduction target. “We urgently call upon the developed countries to demonstrate proactive leadership by fulfilling their commitment, made 14 years ago to provide the pledged $100 billion. It’s time to take decisive action and uphold their responsibility to support global climate initiatives,” she said. 

Her Excellency said the UAE is committed to co-leading the Global Green Economy Alliance, which assists countries in transitioning to green economies, and highlighted the recently announced the COP28 Food and Agriculture Agenda, inviting G20 nations to join the UAE in championing changes for global food systems, aligning with the UAE's position as Pro-Growth and Pro-Climate.