UN Climate Change Conference – COP26

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and gentleman,

Bhutan is taking the floor on behalf of the LDC Group.

We commend the achievements made so far and acknowledge that much work remains for next two days to complete. We must set a precedent to finish our work on time. COP26 must conclude by Friday. There is no time for delay.

We share our sincere appreciation to all Honourable ministers for providing us with update on the work done on various thematic area.

We saw the draft text on the Cover decisions this morning. There are some useful paragraphs while others need to be strengthened further.

The language on ambition pertaining to 1.5°C needs to be strengthened. Raising ambition within this decade to be consistent with 1.5°C pathways remain crucial. We also need to find a balance in the text with regards to adaptation and means of implementation.

Climate Finance

We are concerned about the existing differences and amount of work that remains to be delivered for a meaningful outcome on finance. The level of ambition required to keep 1.5 within reach is not reflected yet in the finance texts, particularly for those belonging to Adaptation, Long term Finance and the new quantified climate finance goal.

Adaptation

On adaptation, we are seeing good progress on the global goal for adaptation discussion. The options are now becoming a good basis for ministerial engagement. With a timeline of two year, launching a work programme will help demystify some methodological, empirical,
technical and political challenges as indicated by the adaptation committee.

Article 6

With regards to the rules on Article 6, we are grateful for the revised text. We remain concerned about the treatment of the Share of Proceeds and Overall Mitigation in global emissions in the text. We do not see any reasonable means of carrying over Kyoto Protocol units but could consider transition of certain projects that meet acceptable standards.

Loss and Damage

With regards to loss and damage, we acknowledge the progress made in laying out the process to operationalize the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage. We look forward to resolving the discussion on finance for loss and damage.

Transparency

A significant amount of work is still required to finalize the remaining work on the enhanced transparency framework.

Much work remains for the next two days and there is no time for delay. We must make more progress in the next two days