Excellencies

 Fellow Ministers

 Distinguished ladies and gentlemen

Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to join you to discuss support for climate efforts up to 2020 and how we can enhance our efforts.

Given the emergency nature of the climate crisis, we can no longer afford to be planning for future action. We must take immediate and bold steps now to limit temperature rises and protect the ecological integrity of the planet.

Rwanda takes its international obligations seriously and was among the first countries in the world to ratify the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

We were also among the first to ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and have recently introduced a National Cooling Strategy with minimum energy performance standards that are fast-tracking our work to phase out hydrofluorocarbons.

Rwanda is in the process of revising our climate action plan, our NDC, to make it more ambitious. We are aiming to submit the updated plan by March 2020.

To ensure we have the resources required to implement our environment and climate goals, we established the Rwanda Green Fund to be a financing vehicle for green growth. The fund provides technical and financial support to the private sector, overnment and civil society for investments aligned with Rwanda’s green growth strategy.

To date, the fund’s investments have created more than 137,000 green jobs, of which 60% have been for women. The fund was proud to receive the 2018 UNFCCC Momentum for Change Award for excellence in climate finance leadership.

We are now developing a monitoring and evaluation framework that will track the progress of Rwanda’s climate action against its commitments to the Paris Agreement and our national Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy to ensure we are moving as quickly as we need to.

I would like to take this opportunity to request all nations, especially big emitters, to raise their ambition and increase their financial pledges to bridge the gap of meeting the climate finance target of 100 billion dollars per year.

The only way we can address the climate crisis is by working together. We only have one planet to call home and we need to do everything we can to protect it for future generations. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us.

Thank you.