Good afternoon everybody.

It is a pleasure to be in beautiful Sevilla with all of you on this hot June day.

I would like to start by thanking Barbados, Kenya, and France, as well as the European Climate Foundation and its CEO, Ms. Laurence Tubiana, for their leadership in the Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce.

Its particularly timely that we are gathered here today.

Later, the Commission will convene an informal dialogue with our partners focused on actionable improvements to the climate finance system, especially to support countries most vulnerable to climate change.

The EU is playing a central role in this global effort, contributing EUR 28.6bn to climate finance in 2023, nearly 40% of which is dedicated to climate adaptation or measures involving both mitigation and adaptation.

We are committed to maintaining financial support for adaptation in the coming years, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities.

However, we all need to do more, as we agreed to scale up climate finance flows into developing countries to USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035 through the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance.

Solidarity levies have a crucial role in the climate finance landscape.

They provide additional, predictable funding to tackle societal and climate challenges worldwide, especially for the most vulnerable countries.

Moreover, levies can also discourage polluting activities.

Aviation remains one of the few sectors where emissions are still rising.

It accounts for about 4% of the EUs total greenhouse gas emissions and roughly 2% globally; yet it is one of the fastest-growing sources of emissions.

The EU is actively addressing this issue: since 2012, airlines are included in the Emissions Trading System, and several Member States, such as France, are exploring or already have levy solutions that vary by travel class and include private jets.

The Global Solidarity Levies Taskforces work is crucial as it builds momentum around aviation levies and effective international design.

From our perspective, any levies must be structured carefully to maintain competitiveness, uphold market integrity, and ensure social fairness.

This is why the European Commission decided to support, as an observer, the Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce, focusing particularly on levies in the aviation sector.

We are pleased to join France, Kenya, Barbados, Spain, and others in working towards COP30 for a better contribution from the aviation sector to fair transitions and resilience, with special attention to premium flyers.

I invite all partners to join and closely follow the important work of the Taskforce as we approach COP30.

Thank you very much.