Representatives of the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, gathered today in Timor-Leste, want COP31 to deliver concrete results in mitigation, adaptation, climate finance, and loss and damage.
The Group of Least Developed Countries (LDC Group), consisting of 44 member states, concluded today in Dili a meeting to define the priorities to be presented at the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31), which will be held in Turkey from 9 to 20 November.
The gathering also included a ministerial meeting, which approved the Dili Declaration.
“The LDCs cannot permit another year of promises without fulfillment. We left Dili more united and with a clear political direction for COP31,” said Timor-Leste’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Forests, Marcos da Cruz.
According to the minister, financing must reach the least developed countries, climate change adaptation must be increased and implemented, and loss and damage must be discussed.
“Those with greater responsibility and capacity must lead the emissions reductions to keep the world on a trajectory compatible with 1.5°C. For the LDCs, this concerns our lives, our livelihoods and our future. COP31 must respond with the urgency that reality demands,” the minister stressed.
The president of the LDC Group, the Timorese ambassador Adão Soares Barbosa, highlighted that the Dili Declaration is a “clear expression of the unity and determination” of that group of countries.
“We defined what COP31 must provide to populations at the front line of the climate crisis. The move to the implementation phase is important,” he said, noting that that group of countries is the one that has contributed the least to climate changes.
The Dili Declaration expresses deep concern about the worsening climate crisis, which disproportionately affects the LDCs, and calls for a rapid reduction of global emissions.
The 44 countries also call for the urgent implementation of the climate finance mechanism and concrete measures to respond to the losses and damages caused by climate change.
