Earth Hour 2023 Event

A recording of this message can be found on Tencent Video and YouTube with Chinese subtitles provided by the event organizer

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,                                                                                                                  

I am delighted to join you today to celebrate this important annual event that demonstrates that the public can be empowered to become a crucial actor in addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate, nature and pollution.

As we all know, the effects of our actions on the environment are accelerating and becoming increasingly more difficult to reverse We are seeing increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters, alarming rates of biodiversity loss, and CO2 emissions that remain at unsustainable levels.

At the global level, agreements, including the Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kunming-Montreal  Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), demonstrate that the global community is committed to addressing these challenges. The latter commits countries to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and provides us with a strong signal of hope for our shared future, including for youth and future generations.

While the adoption of the GBF is an important first step, in order for us to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, we need to immediately focus on our implementation efforts, increase funding and financing on conversation efforts, and seek transformative actions.

We, as the UN in China, continue to work closely with the Government of China, academic institutions, the private sector and other UN Member States to support a variety of efforts to accelerate the implementation and operationalization of the current agendas that address these pressing planetary crises.

As the UN Secretary-General said at the CBD COP-15 Conference in December of last year, “There is no Planet B. It is only by investing in Planet Earth that we can safeguard our future.”

We are standing at a crossroads for nature and our future. Earth Hour is an important opportunity to unite the world and create cascading impact among individuals, communities, businesses, and governments to help protect and restore our planet.

Let me conclude with a quote from President Xi Jinping, “we must speed up the green transformation, implement comprehensive conservation strategies, develop green and low-carbon industries, advocate green consumption, and promote green and low-carbon production methods and lifestyles”.

Here is an opportunity for the international community to use the multilateral platform, to save our planet and to save humanity.

I wish this event a great success today and look forward to collaborating with WWF China and other stakeholders in efforts to redefine the relationship between people and earth for a sustainable future for all.