President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. The candidate countries Türkiye, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina[1]  as well as Armenia, align themselves with this statement.

President,

Climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss are the defining crises of our time. This triple planetary crisis affect severely the most vulnerable populations, particularly in the Least Developed Countries, and Small Island Developing States. A challenge of this magnitude requires global solutions that can only be achieved through international cooperation and a strong multilateral approach.

UNIDO has a role to play in addressing these crises and facilitating the green industrial transition in its Member States. Its programmes on green hydrogen, circular economy, just energy transition and industrial decarbonisation, can help transform industries from major polluter to a leading provider of innovative climate solutions. The EU therefore welcome the development of an Action Plan 2025-2029 for the implementation of the UNIDO Strategy on Climate Change.

With the European Green Deal, the European Union is leading by example. We are committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. We want to be the first major economy to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Both targets are enshrined in the EU Climate Law and are legally binding. Moreover, recent surveys have shown that in particular young Europeans overwhelmingly take climate conscious decisions on a daily basis and demand more sustainable policies.

The EU remains the largest provider of international climate finance, contributing 28.6 billion euros in public climate finance in 2023 and mobilising an additional amount of 7.2 billion euros of private finance to support developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impact of climate change.

President,

The EU welcomes the adoption of the Pact for the Future, which calls for circular economy approaches as a pathway to achieving sustainable consumption and production patterns. We invite all interested countries to join the Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency (GACERE) to further enhance international cooperation and a just circular economy transition on a global scale.

The EU is already undergoing its own transition to a circular economy, a step necessary to achieve our 2050 climate neutrality target and to halt biodiversity loss. We also support other countries in their efforts. We are grateful to UNIDO for its implementation of the EU-funded projects in a number of countries in the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood, in Africa and Asia. These include the programme SWITCH to promote circular business models in electronics in Egypt, textiles/garments in Bangladesh, and plastics in Morocco.

To further showcase these actions, we invite all interested delegations to an EU event entitled “Advancing Circular Economy through EU-UNIDO partnership” today, 26 November at 13.00 in Conference Room 7. We thank Director General Müller for joining us for this event.

I thank you for your attention.

[1] North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.