Remarks by Commissioner Hoekstra at the Mutirão consultations

Thank you Chair, thank you Lars,

We are here in Belém, at the heart of the Amazon forest.

We are surrounded by nature and by those people who feel the full force of climate change. Like no one else.

It was this Saturday that thousands of people hit the streets in Belém to demand we take action.

On bringing emissions down. On transitioning away from fossil fuels. And doing so in a way that is just and fair.

And we agree.

What is more, we very much agree with the statement by President Lula.

We agree to support and advance it, and we do need to make sure that, when NDCs fall well short, we deliver on the first task we have.

And that is to address the gap.

That is what we here for, that is what we here for. And then look at the text.

Look at it.

None of it is in there.

No science.

No global stocktake.

No transitioning away.

But instead, weakness.

Weakness on mitigation.

And on top of it, a clear breach of last years agreement on the NCQG.

So, I am going to be just as clear.

Under no circumstances are we going to accept this.

And nothing that is even remotely close, and I say it with pain in my heart, nothing that is remotely close to what is now on the table.

Yes, we do have a few more hours left.

You can count on us to do our absolute utmost to deliver.

Not for the EU. But for all of us.

For what is needed.

For what is at stake.

I am also going to articulate what this means in practice.

The NDCs will need to move beyond rhetoric. We need a concrete, annual process to follow up concretely on our commitments and to accelerate our commitment on implementation, keeping 1.5°C alive not in speeches, but in practice.

We need to make sure that the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy is real and in the text.

The same is true for all elements of the global stocktake.

What on earth did we then do two years ago?

The problem has become larger and our bar is going lower. This is not acceptable.

Lets be clear on all of these elements, and certainly on transitioning away.

If we deliver on that, if we deliver on the mitigation here together, yes you can ask the EU to move beyond its comfort zone on the financing of adaptation.

But only and only if the NCQG is respected.

In full.

And only and only if all the elements on mitigation I have mentioned that others will hammer home as well are in there.

Thank you!