French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius delivered a video address to the high-level opening plenary session at the first day of the Global Landscapes Forum 2015, in Paris, France alongside COP21.

The session explores the investments into sustainable landscapes that countries and private actors have already committed to – as well as the areas in which we need to scale up efforts.

Saturday, 5 December 2015
Global Landscapes Forum, Paris, France
#GLFCOP21 #ThinkLandscape

Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, I’m very sorry that I can’t be with you today at le Palais des congrès in Paris for the third Global Landscaped Forum. But I think you can understand that my obligations as the President of COP21 require me to be at le Bourget today.

So, what is the situation with COP21? Last Monday, 150 heads of state and government came to state their commitment to climate and their determination to find an agreement. This was an unprecedented gathering and it gave COP21 great dynamism. This has given us momentum for the rest of the conference to be successful.

Since last Monday, the negotiators have been working on the draft agreement as such. Work has started up. It started up a bit too slowly, I must confess, and I’ve asked for work to be sped up. There have been some improvements made, there has been some progress, but not enough.

Today a new draft text will be submitted by the two co-chairs of the negotiating groups, and I trust that it will meet our expectations. But in any case there will still be a great deal of work to be done with the ministers and heads of delegations as of today. In the remaining days, I shall be leading the discussions and the target is to get the different parties to have their positions come together so that we can reach our overall ambition of having an ambitious agreement – which has to be achieved by next Friday, the 11th of December. And obviously we cannot disappoint all the hopes that have been put in COP21.

Now, you have many different players here – researchers, political leaders, representatives of NGOs, and people from the private sector here. I’ve been told that more than 2000 participants are expected be at the Palais de congrès today. And I’m very pleased to see that this event is part of the Lima Paris Action Plan, it’s in line with the work done there, which was launched in December last year, with our friends from Peru and the United Nations. This plan is designed to encourage and get the commitments from non-state players, or non-state actors. Because we have the state part, which is the formal negotiations, and you have the non-state part.

As part of this work, we have work at Le Bourget today, with what we call the climate action day. And there are two targets there, which is to highlight the most significant commitments which have been taken by state and by non-governmental players, and we want to see what the world will be like. Today we want it to be a carbon neutral world, we want one which is resilient and can stand up to climate change.

And your forum here will be making a contribution for us to move in that direction because the objective of your meeting is to come up with concrete proposals to combat climate change, and I expect a great deal from these concrete proposals.

So we’ve got this move to protect our planet underway. It is at Le Bourget and also at the Palais de congrès this weekend. Everything is looking good, but – but – but we still have to conclude the negotiations on the actual text. I trust that will be done next Friday, or by next Friday. In any case, what’s being done by today by you, with you, and for you, is a very positive development.

And I would like to thank you for your decisive contribution which you’ve made, and wish you a very successful forum.