Climate Implementation Bridge Meetings & Events Date: 24 September 2026 Language: English Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/ar/asset/k14/k14tl854x8?lang=en Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations. --- Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [1:36]: Thank you very much. The former meeting took too long. This is why we had to start this meeting with a delay. So, we apologize you all for that. Distinguished ministers, administrator of UNDP, Mr. Alexander Dekker, distinguished representatives of international organizations and financial institutions, ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be here with you at this gathering in New York, which holds particular significance for us on the road to COP31. I respectfully greet each and every one of you and welcome you to the launch of the Climate Implementation Bridge. Distinguished participants, we have not gathered today merely to launch a new initiative. We are jointly seeking an answer to one of the most fundamental questions facing climate action. How will we bring the commitments we have made together with our country's development priorities, and how will we turn them into actionable investments and tangible results on the ground? Yes, over the past decade, the international community has made significant efforts to strengthen climate targets. countries have prepared and updated their nationally determined contributions. They have developed adaptation plans, long-term low emission development strategies and sectoral transformation targets. Now we have another responsibility before us, implementation. We must now discuss not only which targets we will set, but also how we will implement these targets on the ground. As I stated in Bonn, while developing the COP31 Action Agenda, we focused on the world's most urgent needs, the implementation challenges faced by countries on the ground, and the areas where COP31 can make a lasting contribution. Because The world needs not a new list of commitments, but the transformation of existing commitments into concrete results. As a COP31 presidency, we have therefore built our journey towards Antalya around three fundamental principles: dialogue, consensus and action. Dialogue enables us to understand different national circumstances and needs. Consensus enables us to come together around common solutions. Action, meanwhile, transforms our targets into concrete results in people's lives, in our cities and in our economies. We are developing the Climate Implementation Bridge with this understanding. Throughout our preparatory process, we have conducted extensive consultations with countries, United Nations organizations, multilateral development banks, international financial institutions, climate funds and representatives of the private sector. These consultations have given us a clear picture. Many countries know what they need to do. They have their climate targets, development priorities and sectoral strategies. However, they face significant challenges in turning these priorities into actionable investment programs and projects into financing and concrete results. On the other hand, significant technical and financial support capacity exists. The United Nations system, development banks, climate funds, international financial institutions, bilateral partners, and the private sector offer important opportunities. However, these opportunities do not always meet countries' priorities at the right time and in the right way. BRIDGE aims to respond precisely to this gap. We want to bring climate targets together more effectively with national development priorities and financing opportunities. We want to identify bottlenecks to implementation, strengthen countries' investment readiness, and enable them to make more effective use of existing international support ecosystem. Here, I would like to underline an important point. BRIDGE is not a new fund, a new financing mechanism or a new structure intended as an alternative to existing institutions. It is a country-focused initiative that starts from countries' own priorities and existing national systems and aims to bring existing capacities and support opportunities together more effectively around implementation. Our goal is to transform commitments into implementation, implementation into investment, and investment into concrete results. Today, we are reaching an important stage in this journey. We are pleased to welcome the first group of countries. Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan will be the first group of countries to begin working with BRIDGE. We will keep increasing the number of these countries in the upcoming term. We do not see these countries merely as countries that will benefit from BRIDGE. Their experiences, needs and feedback will also directly contribute to shaping how BRIDGE develops. Because we see BRIDGE as an initiative shaped not only for countries, but also together with countries. implementation requires strong partnerships. For this reason, we attach great importance to the partnership we have established with the United Nations Development Programme, and I would like to extend my gratitude to them before you, because they have really owned this subject since day one, and they worked very hard along with our team. The global expertise of the United Nations system and UNDP, its strong presence at the country level and its work under Climate Promise Forward will make an important contribution to transforming BRIDGE into a structure that responds to the country's needs. I would like to thank United Nations Development Programme for this partnership and its strong support. Another fundamental element of implementation is finance. Climate finance is not an end in itself for us. It is the bridge between commitments and results. At the Climate Finance Summit we held in Istanbul on 4th of September, we strongly conveyed this message together with the governments, multilateral development banks, international financial institutions and investors. Today, We're taking this call one step further from New York. We invite governments, international organizations, development banks, climate funds, investors, and the private sector to build partnerships for implementation. As we move towards Antalya, our objective is not merely to launch an initiative. We want to make concrete progress with our first countries, bring new countries into the process, strengthen the participation of finance and development actors, and leave a lasting legacy that will continue to serve countries' implementation efforts beyond COP31. And in Antalya, while advancing the action agenda and our work on implementation, we know that strong implementation on the ground must advance together with international cooperation, trust and strong consensus at the negotiating table. And I believe the Climate Implementation Bridge will be one of the concrete tools of this approach. and we will focus on bringing countries' priorities together with international support capacity in a more effective manner. And today here in New York, we are taking an important step on this path together. I would like to thank especially UNDP, as well as all the other countries, for taking this step. in order to fill the gap between implementation and finance. And I would like to thank each and every one of you for your kind contributions. And I would like to greet you all respectfully once again. Distinguished participants, I now would like to invite the presidency of negotiations from Australia. Australia is undertaking the presidency of negotiations and we're working with them in a great harmony. And I want to thank Australia and their colleagues for this great work. And now I would like to give the floor to Ms. Kushla Munro. The floor is yours. Australia · Deputy Minister · Kushla Munro [11:59]: Good afternoon, all. I would also like to extend my thanks to His Excellency Murat Kurum for hosting us here today and to everyone who is attending. We thank Te Kia for their initiative in elevating the action agenda, including through this very important development and launch of the Climate Implementation Bridge. Today's announcement of the six pilot countries is an important step in putting these ideas into action. The actions demonstrate the ongoing commitment by Tokia to implementation. And the Bridges focus, in particular on electrification, I think reflects how important this topic has emerged as a central focus for COP31. We are at a critical moment for climate action, economic development, and energy security. I think it is fair to say we know what is required to accelerate effort: political will, finance and capacity. Political will is one of the things being demonstrated today, and we really do appreciate the support of parties and broader stakeholders in the room. I think it is proof of that will. Finance, of course, is a critical enabler for implementing ambitious and effective climate action. And we see that through the bridge, Tokia has demonstrated that taking innovative approaches can and hopefully will unlock investment and, you know, at much larger scales, which is what is required if we're going to meet our commitments. And this ongoing focus on implementation and innovation, I think, is a signature of their presidency. And we are very glad to be partnering with them for COP31. Again, this focus on what will matter to countries, and so pleased to see the initial group of countries, and particularly, I shouldn't just call out one, but I will, but I'm particularly pleased to see Fiji as part of that because we'll be hosting the pre-COP in Fiji and also Tuvalu. But it's that inclusiveness and that sense of how do you lead, how do you find new pathways and how do you learn. And I think demonstrating the international community's ongoing commitment to cooperation, capacity building and delivery is a key part of how we have trust in the UNFCCC system and multilateralism in general. And again, that is why I think all these efforts are so important and also a signature of what will come out of COP31. Thank you. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [15:05]: Thank you very much for your valuable remarks. Kushla has given us great details. Now I would like to invite one of the very important stakeholders of this project, the administrator of UNDP, Mr. Alexander. He is also with us now. And I would like to thank him and his team for their efforts. The floor is yours. UNDP · Administrator · Alexander Dekker [15:36]: Thank you, Minister Kurum, Deputy Minister Munro, distinguished ministers. Excellencies, colleagues and friends, thank you for joining us here. First of all, my sincere appreciation to COP31, the presidency of Turkey, for its leadership in launching the Climate Implementation Bridge. We are at a pivotal moment. Over the last decades, We have raised the climate ambition, we have made nationally determined contributions, we have made national adaptation plans, we have made long-term strategies. It is quite clear that we know where we have to go. The question and the challenge is how are we getting there? We are entering the era of implementation. And that era of implementation requires us to work in a different way than the way we have worked over the past decades. Implementation requires institutional strength. It requires bankable projects. It requires partnerships. It requires investment. Yet, For the moment, we see that the climate plans sit in one ministry, the development strategy sits in another ministry, the finance ministry is brought in, but often way too late, and partners and stakeholders are providing risk management and so on, but very often in a very fragmented way. That is the thing that we need to change. And BRIDGE has the ambition and the potential to bring all those pieces together, to bring together what countries want to achieve and together the investments that are needed to make it happen. And as a first critical step to test that out, indeed, Minister, as you said, the first cohort of BRIDGE countries have been put together, Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. These countries will be the ones that will show what works in practice. And at UNDP, we are extremely happy and honored to bring our entire delivery architecture to the service of this presidency initiative. Over the past 10 years, with our climate promise, we have established an infrastructure in implementing climate projects. We have been partnering with more than 30 UN entities across the system and work closely with almost all of the NDC partnerships that are there. In addition to that, we bring some new initiatives that we have assembled over the past months. One of them is the Investment Accelerator. The Investment Accelerator is really making the transition between national priorities and projects that can be financed by private capital. Too often, the plans and initiatives are there, but bridging that with capital is often the difficult thing to do. There is no shortage of capital looking for good projects these days, but bringing those two together is what we bring to the table. The second element is our jobs for prosperity facility. because I think one of the more tangible ways of making this climate agenda work is to translate it into jobs. Jobs, skills and opportunity, that is something that people will feel in their daily lives. And with this funding contribution to BRIDGE, Turkey has not only been investing in this vision, think you're also sending a very powerful signal. And that very powerful signal is that implementation cannot wait and that catalytic financing can bring in way larger pools of public and private capital together to deliver on those climate ambitions. We have been talking so much about climate ambitions. Those were verbal discussions, but the real discussion now is how do we make it happen? and how do we bring the resources and the capital to make that happen. So, looking ahead to COP31 in Antalya, the ambition is very clear, and we have also heard the President's desire to come back with evidence. Evidence of what country needs, evidence of what works, and most importantly, evidence that capital is moving. We understand that the aim for the six countries is to have a clear diagnostics and to have concrete investment roadmaps. presidencies wants to show that this is a model that can grow. Well, let us be very clear, we will bring everything to the table that we have to demonstrate that it is a model that can work. We will bring our infrastructure, we will bring our technical expertise, and we will bring all the partnerships that we have to make this work. People do not experience climate policy only through declarations. Declarations are good for political speeches and interviews, but how people really experience it is through, for example, cheaper and more reliable energy, through jobs, through infrastructure that is ready for the next flood or heatwave, and through communities that are better protected. That is the real test of climate policy in action. Climate policy and action is really the goal of this COP31, and that really is the test that bridge must pass. The plans are written, the priorities are clear. Now we have to move from ambition to investment, and from investment to results. Climate action only matters when people can feel it in their daily lives, by being better protected, and by creating more opportunities for sustainable economic growth. Thank you. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [22:01]: Thank you very much, Alexander. You have really made it very clear what we want to do here. We want to achieve results, we want to deliver, and this is why we require implementation, and we would like to accelerate the implementation in this way through such projects. Now I would like to move on to our title, the age of implementation. Why must climate development and finance come together? Now I would like to give the floor to James, the Director of Mitigation under UNFCCC, the floor is yours. Esteemed James is still not with us, apparently. Until he arrives, within the framework of Climate Implementation Bridge, the progress made so far and the consultations that have taken so far Our COP31 Chief Climate Diplomacy Officer, Professor Dr. Mr. Halil Hasar is going to deliver his presentation. Thank you. Türkiye · Chief Climate Diplomacy Officer · Halil Hasar [23:24]: Thank you, esteemed Minister. Excellencies, distinguished partners, thank you very much for coming here. In the next few minutes, I will set out where the Climate Implementation Bridge is positioned. how it operates at a country level, who is responsible for what, and what we will deliver by Antalya. Our sentence to keep in mind, bridge, converse, country priorities into finance projects without creating an additional layer. In the second decade of the Paris Agreement, there are four questions. First one is, where should we go? The BELA mission to 1.5 defines ambitions, gaps, and political priorities. Second one is, what should we accelerate? The Global Implementation Accelerator identifies high-impact, scalable solutions. Third one is, what does the country need? The country itself responds on the basis of its own NDC and NAP and development plan and designates its priorities for investment. And the last question, how do we translate them into investment? That is rich. The benchmark is always the country's own NDC and NAP. The global process provides direction and the countries decide. BRIDGE is not a new fund, as our minister mentioned, and not an implementing agency, and not additional platform. BRIDGE mandate is narrow and precise. The gap between priority and capital. It draws on three inputs. The priorities a country has designated for investment, country expectation and investment needs align with the BALAM mission and the solution models the country has adopted from Accelerator. It performs five functions. It ranks a project list, prepares projects, assesses bankability, designs the financing, and matches the portfolio with the appropriate financier. with finance actors at the table from the outset. It has a single output, an investment-ready portfolio, a limited number of projects per country, each sufficiently mature to enter the financier on approval process. This is the working together model. The numbers indicate seven hand hours. Along the spine, the Bella mission conveys gaps and priorities to the accelerator. The accelerator conveys solution models to the country and country expectations flow in both direction with the mission. The accelerator also channel support for selected solutions directed to financial institutions. From the country level, the flow proceeds directly to BRIDGE. The country transmits the priorities it has designated for investment, and BRIDGE assembles the investment-ready portfolio and delivers it to financial support, MDBs, climate funds, DFAs, national development banks, and the private capital. Financing then follows to implementation on the ground. The dashed lines close the loop, our results and learning return to the Belém Mission, scaling and replication to the Accelerator. On the right, the COP31 presidency and the Global Bridge Steering Committee constitute the governing body. At the country level, the process runs from entry to exit. Entry consists of a clear government demand signal and in-country focal team led by the finance and sector ministries and the readiness note anchored in the countries on NDC and NAP. The input stage is national architecture and capacity, delivered with UN system, country platforms and development partners. BRICS core comprises two steps, pipeline development and aggregation, followed by finance design and mobilization. At exit, the financial decides through its own process and lessons feedback into national systems, the Belem Mission and Accelerator. Finance actors are engaged from the offset, not after projects have been developed. It is a hybrid model. The COP31 presidents and Global Bridge Steering Committee group provide political leadership, direction, participation criteria, momentum and review. Governments and their national platforms own implementation and integrate it into planning and budgeting. The UN system, through Climate Promise Forward, provides the delivery infrastructure, Implementation and finance partners, including the private sector, contribute the instruments, project preparations, the risking, blended finance, guarantees, and capital deployment, lean at the global level and core at the national level. The architecture we propose for discussion is deliberately simple. The COP31 presidency is strategic sponsor and political champion. The British Global Steering Committee brings together the co-presidencies present and the future with observers from UNFCCC, UNDP, donors, countries, NDPs and the private capital supported by a technical advisor group. UNDP Climate Promise is responsible for fund management, work plans, quality assurance and reporting. Each participating country leads delivery on the ground. The committee guides strategy and portfolio priorities. It does not manage operations and finances. We began with five countries, Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, selected for geographic balance, a clear demand signal and readiness. We are not applying a ready-made model, we are developing an approach jointly with them. And the second cohort will be selected through an open call with published criteria. The timeline is realistic. New York today the first cohort and the operating model, October scoping and screening and advanced stage projects. Antalya in November, launch the second cohort and partner commitments, 2027 and 2028, the first financial closes. 2029 and 2030, new portfolios and measurable contribution to the 2030 action agenda targets. Allow me to conclude where I began. BRIDGE converts country priorities into financial projects by connecting that what already exists. Partners wishing to engage with the first cohort ahead of Antalya are most welcome. I thank you for listening. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [32:33]: Thank you very much. This process is going to work in the format of a troika. The former co-presidents, the incoming co-presidency will follow up, as well as the future co-presidency. Now the former COP President, my dear friend, Andrea, is with us. Andrea, will take the floor, please. Former COP President · Andrea [33:01]: Good afternoon to all and thank you so much, Murat. It's really a pleasure to be here and to see the launching of the Implementation Bridge. I think that we all know that COPs are part of a process. And I think that people want to see that one builds after the other as a result of the efforts that accumulate. And I think that there are very few examples as constructive of this that we are seeing today. Because when in Belen, I want to recall the decision. And the decision puts very clearly that the parties resolve to decisively transition to a focus on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and decisions adopted since its first session. So that's exactly what we are doing, uh, and, uh, I want to stress that in this decision, not only we have this decision to implement, but we also have the decision to create the accelerator. And I also want to praise your presidency, dear Murat, but also Australia for having developed together the accelerator as we did. And it was an extremely constructive process, and I thank you enormously. And we did this really at a very positive pace that allowed you to develop the bridge and build that together. And this, obviously, we have to thank Uh, your, uh, very wise idea, uh, to have this partnership with UNDP, uh, that allowed this to happen, uh, at the speed that is completely uncommon. And let me just say a word also about the countries that were chosen, which I think is a really wonderful sample of countries and countries that are different enough to demonstrate that what you are doing is really an effort to support the country's priorities and how different each country is and how important it is to take into consideration these differences. So just to reiterate to you that I'm extremely happy to be here today and I want to congratulate you. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [35:44]: Thank you, dear Andre. Now, with your permission, we would like to listen to the perspectives of the selected pilot countries and one of them, Ethiopia. is with us and Ethiopia is going to be the COP president in the next term. So the first country to take the floor as the COP 32 president and one of the first countries within the first cohort group, Ethiopia. Esteemed Minister Fitsum Assefa, the floor is yours. Ethiopia · Minister · Fitsum Assefa [36:34]: Thank you, President-designate, Minister Murat Krum. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Ethiopia congratulates the government of Turkey on launching the Climate Implementation Bridge, and we are pleased to join it as a partner country. We are seeing a lot of strong ideas coming out of the COP31 presidency, so I would like to appreciate all the hard work that has gone into this. On behalf of my government, we would like to be frontrunner countries to showcase implementation of this initiative, because this is a flagship initiative of COP31, designed to help countries turn raw natural climate plans into concrete investment ready projects. Our main interest lies in electrification and energy. Ethiopia generates almost all of its electricity from renewable sources. Hydropower, wind, solar, and geothermal are the backbone of our grid. Yet, million Ethiopians still live without reliable access to electricity, and most households still cook with firewood and charcoal. Through different policy interventions, we have been seeing concrete change, yet our ambition is quite high. This is the unfortunate trap that many developing countries struggle with. Ethiopia has committed to universal electricity access through our national electrification program. We have moved to electrify transport, as you know, becoming one of the first countries to restrict the import of fossil fuel private vehicles. And through the Eastern Africa Power Pool, we are already exporting clean power to our neighbors because we see our energy future as a regional one. The challenge counts to be the means of implementation to deliver at scale. This is why bridge can be a critical tool and why we come with a portfolio rather than a pledge. Ethiopia is bringing forward priority investments, including transmission and distribution to connect underserved regions to the grid. Off grid and mini grid solutions where the grid will not reach in time and cross-border interconnections to deepen regional power trade, we join today because we believe this initiative can support countries like ours, unlock the means of implementation support that is required. BRIDGE will be effective when project development is funded by grants or low interest loans and when it builds up on existing national systems as opposed to establishing a new parallel ones. The cost of capital also has to be considered since Even if the resources are available for a country with limited financial flexibility, the financing conditions can ultimately determine whether a pipeline produces power that reaches people. If BRIDGE does a good job in getting these things right, then it will demonstrate that the promise of the energy transition are for everyone. and it will build trust that agreements made in the course of this process lead to change on the ground. I thank you. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [40:28]: Thank you very much, distinguished Minister. Now, I would like to give the floor to Pakistan, Mr. Muhammad. Oran Seif, the Minister of Finance and Incomes. The floor is yours. Pakistan · Minister of Finance and Incomes · Muhammad Oran Seif [40:55]: Excellencies, distinguished delegates, in the first instance, Pakistan is indeed honored to join the inaugural cohort of countries engaging with the Climate Implementation Bridge. Now, the way I look at it and the way this has been described, there are really three critical enablers having the policy framework, having the financing associated with it, and the last, and I would imagine the most critical thing, capacity building at the country level. You need to have this triage, and you have to all three enablers moving in the right direction to where we want to get to, which is to yield results and create impact. because I think that's what we are trying to do to have impact at the country level for our communities and citizens. Now, I will take just, because the UNDP administrator talked about diagnostic, and I thought I would just take a first stab, very quick stab, of what these three aspects look for Pakistan at this point in time, and just put it in the context of a RAG status. So if I look at the policy framework, we do have the NDCs, we have the NDAs, the green taxonomy has been rolled out by the central bank. We have worked with V20 in terms of climate prosperity plan. So I would put it somewhere in the amber green category. The financing part of it, using our own resources, working very closely with the World Bank in terms of the 10-year country partnership framework, the ADB, IMF resilience facility. We just did a green panda bond in the capital markets, working with PEVC funds and also with some of the climate funds. So I would put it somewhere in the amber category. It's the third one where, Minister Kurum, you mentioned it, and I think Administrator De Cruz mentioned it, is the fragmentation at the country level, where we all work in our own silos rather than going horizontal. which therefore we need to address that and also to come up with investable bankable projects even when you have the financing available. And in the case of Pakistan, we have actually seen it in the 22 flooding when we went to Geneva for international pledges and the world was extremely generous. But because it was project driven and we could not come up with investable bankable projects, a lot of that went unutilized. So my submission would be we have work to do in all of these areas and therefore using the bridge and coming in as the first cohort is going to be extremely important as Minister Khurram, as you mentioned, to move forward with dialogue, consensus and most importantly, action. But my only request to everyone would be that when we talk about consensus, let's have a consensus on some no-regret decisions. And we can continue to work on peripheries as we move forward so that we can actually move towards action. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [44:20]: Well, thank you very much, distinguished Minister Mohamed, because you said you were not able to utilize the advantage because you don't have investment ready projects. This is a great description. Indeed, we would like to have investment ready projects and we can see there how we can further that with the countries, the financing institutions. For example, we have the governor of Central Bank from Turkey with us as well. We have to carry out this process along with the financial institutions of the country. Thank you very much for your kind words. Now I would like to give the floor to Fiji Minister of Information and Environment, Tambo. The floor is yours. Fiji · Minister of Information and Environment · Tambo [45:19]: Thank you. Thank you, President of COP 31, Minister Korum, acknowledging Australia also as chair of negotiations present, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. Bula vinaka from the blue Pacific continent. I do commend the COP31 presidency of Turkey and the United Nations Development Programme for this legacy that is here and announced here at UNGA and along with Australia as well. For Fiji, of course, as a small island developing state, we hear this over and over, we are on the front line of climate change, and implementation certainly determines whether our communities are assisted. We have strengthened our national climate ambition through our third nationally determined contribution, and also we are finalizing development of our cost in implementation plan. Of course, this is important because, as has been acknowledged by my earlier speakers, implementation cannot sit with one ministry alone. And yes, we are facing fragmentation within ministries, within government, and even within cabinet, and this needs to be removed. And also, we need a coordinated action across government, even before we talk about the private sector or communities and development partners and financing institutions. And so the experience we've had is that we do know what the priorities are. We've identified these. We know what the challenges are. But then we need to turn them into bankable projects that can be realized at the speed that I would say needs to also be within certain election cycles. We have experienced, even in Fiji, that with our election cycles, and all politicians in the room know what I'm talking about, that sometimes when there's a change of government, then the priorities change, and unfortunately projects lapse and funding lapses. So again, not a lack of funding, it's political will that needs to happen right from ministry and cabinet level. For small island developing states, the access to finance remains fundamental and continuing to call on grant-based climate finance. And again, relates back to how for small island developing states, it's about investing in public goods, not necessarily for-profit projects. So there may be challenges that we face working with private sector funds where there's sometimes it requires you know, projects that need to reap some sort of a profit or show that it is, you know, that it is sustainable for a long term, then we do need to look at grant based finance that is long term as well and something that we can work out with with small island developing states when we are looking at infrastructure and we're looking even at electrification. rural electrification. For me, this is a very personal issue. I come from a maritime island with 12,000 people that still doesn't have electricity to this day. And so having electricity connects islands, connects people, and therefore brings unity and peace. And so this project, and it is a bridge. It is literally a bridge that will build these connections between maritime islands and capital or mainland. Fiji sees considerable value in this project and we are very grateful to be selected as a pilot country. We do welcome BRIDGE supporting Fiji to strengthen project preparation, investment pipelines, addressing implementation bottlenecks, and to better align available finance and technical assistance. Of course, as we approach pre-COP with hosting with Australia and Tuvalu, we look forward to welcoming those of you that will be coming to Fiji next week. And we do stand ready to work with COP31 presidency. And I just want to do a special shout out to UNDP Pacific team. a formidable team led by a very able and fearless leader, Tuiyagorere, and your team in UNDP Pacific, thank you for always ready to assist Fiji and Pacific countries in the great work that you do. Thank you, Vinaka vale. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [50:16]: Thank you very much. Every country has different conditions we always say and the growth strategy has to take those conditions into consideration for sure we have Azerbaijan with us now they undertook cop 29 presidency I would like to give the floor to Mr. Yalchin. Azerbaijan · Yalchin [50:53]: Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by expressing our appreciation to COP31 presidency for convening this timely discussion on the climate implementation bridge. With the full operationalization of the Paris Agreement at COP29, including the agreement on new collective quantified goal and Article 6, we have now entered what is increasingly described as implementation era. Over the past years, we have developed ambitious climate commitments, including NDCs, NAPs and long-term strategies. Well-prepared climate plans are essential to showcase intention for translating commitments under the Paris Agreement into action. But submission alone is not enough. Ambitious plans must be followed by robust implementation, investment and institutional action to deliver meaningful results. For many developing countries, the availability and accessibility of finance, the shortage of finance-ready and bankable projects, a limited institutional capacity to prepare and implement them remain significant challenges. This makes the link between climate ambition, development planning, and finance particularly important. In this context, a climate implementation bridge offers a practical framework to better align climate goals with economic decision-making improve access to finance, and accelerate implementation. Importantly, BRIDGE is not intended to create a new financing mechanism, implementation agency, or coordination platform. Rather, it seeks to strengthen the effectiveness and connectivity of existing institutions, initiatives, and support mechanisms, helping countries address key implementation challenges and translate climate ambition into action. In this context, we particularly welcome the emphasis of BRIDGE on building on existing initiatives and support platforms rather than creating parallel structures. In this context, we see an important connection between Climate Implementation BRIDGE and the Baku Initiative for Climate Finance, Investment and Trade, or BICFIT dialogue, launched under COP29 presidency. While BRIDGE focuses on connecting national climate priorities with development planning, investment and financing opportunities, BIGFIT brings together the climate finance, investment and trade communities to support national climate ambitions and sustainable investment. Both initiatives therefore contribute to the same practical objective, connecting national climate priorities with the financial, investment and economic systems needed to turn them into implementable action. We see considerable potential for these approaches to complement and reinforce each other. In conclusion, we look forward to continuing this conversation with the COP31 presidency and all partners and to advancing the objectives of the BRIDGE initiative. Thank you. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [53:45]: Thank you very much, esteemed ministers. Now, one of the first cohort countries, Indonesia. The Minister responsible for Climate Change and Carbon Exchange, Ali Sudikanto, the floor is yours. Indonesia · Minister responsible for Climate Change and Carbon Exchange · Ali Sudikanto [54:09]: COP31 President, Mr. Murat Kurum, Excellencies, Indonesia warmly welcomes the COP31 presidency initiative to strengthen the connection between climate action, development priorities and finance for implementation. We appreciate the opportunity to join this high-level dialogue and recognize the value of country-led approaches that help translate commitments into coherent programs, capable institutions and appropriate financing. For Indonesia, BRICS will provide added value by strengthening coordination and bridging countries' implementation needs with relevant international support, including through the engagement of various development partners and financial institutions. In its further development, it should be ensured that BRICS remains grounded in a country-driven and needs-based approach, while respecting national ownership, development priorities, and policies in each country. It also should be made a use of and to strengthen existing mechanism and institution without creating additional institutional or bureaucratic layers that could lead to duplication and remains voluntary, facilitative and non-prescriptive and does not create any new obligation, reporting requirements and conditionally this for participating countries. Initial participation in BRIDGE could be considered positively, subject to the registers of the relevant sectoral ministries and decision in this one is regarding the electricity and energy sector, as well as the availability of climate action programs that could be accommodated within the BRIDGE mechanism and its implementation. Indonesia look forward to gaining further insight through the session, which may contribute to better understanding of the objective, scope, modalities and possible implementation arrangement of BRICS. This example would be helpful in informing Indonesia ongoing consideration and consideration process at the national level. I thank you, Chair. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [56:42]: Thank you very much esteemed Aria now on behalf of last country Uzbekistan otobek babam muradova the floor is yours. Uzbekistan · Otobek Babamuradova [56:55]: Thank you very much your Excellency let me deliver remarks on behalf of the his Excellency Mr. Aziz abduhakimov advisor to president of the Republic of Uzbekistan on environmental issues Chairman of the National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change. Your Excellency, Minister, COP31 President-designate Murat Gorum, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank COP31 Presidency of Turkey and United Nations Development Programme for convening this timely event. We highly appreciate the invitation extended to Uzbekistan to join the inaugural cohort of countries participating in the Climate Implementation Bridge. I am pleased to confirm Uzbekistan's readiness to engage actively in this important initiative. Uzbekistan has set an ambitious course towards climate-resilient and low-emission development. Under our updated nationally determined contribution, we aim to reduce greenhouse gas emission per unit of GDP by 50% by 2035 compared with the 2010 level. We have also announced our long-term objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2055. We are already implementing large-scale climate and ecosystem restoration initiatives. More than 2 million hectares of forest plantations have been established on the dried bed of the Aral Sea to reduce dust and salt storms, restore degraded ecosystems, and enhance natural carbon absorption. Under the nationwide Yashil Makon program, translated green space, Uzbekistan aims to plant 200 million trees and shrubs annually and increase the share of urban green areas to 30% by 2030. We are also undertaking an ambitious energy transformation. Over the next five years, we aim to increase the share of the electricity generated from renewable sources to 54%. This includes 4.5 gigawatts of new solar and wind capacity, 785 megawatts of distributed solar panels, and 225 megawatts of hydropower facilities. These measures are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emission by almost 16 million tons annually. At the same time, we are modernizing irrigation infrastructure and expanding water saving technologies to address water scarcity, one of our most urgent climate challenges. Our experience shows that the central challenge is translating national priorities into coordinated investment-ready programs. Developing countries continue to face limited project preparation capacity, fragmented international support, investment risk, and difficulties in accessing affordable and predictable finance. This is where we see the particular value of the Climate Implementation Bridge. We expect COP31 to become an important milestone in moving from climate commitments to implementation. Particular attention should be given to accessible and predictable climate finance, especially for adaptation, technology transfer, capacity building, and support for the implementation of updated NDCs and national adaptation plans. We hope that COP31 will deliver practical implementation. In this regard, climate implementation bridge can become an important and lasting legacy of COP31. Uzbekistan stands ready to work with the COP31 presidency, UNDP, and all partners to turn climate commitments into practical, measurable, and scalable results. Thank you for your attention. Katta Rahmat. Thank you very much. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [1:01:13]: Now we'll proceed with the partners dialogue and we have to hand over the hall as well. We have six speakers so if you can abide by two minutes of time per speaker. Thomas, the floor is yours. OECD · Ambassador · Thomas [1:01:31]: Thank you, Excellency. On behalf of the OECD, I can say that we are pleased to contribute to the bridge as part of the OECD's strategic partnership with the COP31 presidential launch last week in Paris. I would like to thank the Minister for joining us at our headquarters and for leading a valuable exchange with our members on the action agenda. When it comes to the bridge, we see three key priorities. First, Continuing to strengthen the economic case for implementation, to sustain political support, it is important that we continue to demonstrate how climate action delivers tangible economic benefits. Our analysis shows that climate action can go hand in hand with economic growth. Between 2015 and 2024, global GDP grew by 31 percent, while emissions increased by just 9.8%. Looking ahead, OECD and UNDP modelling suggests that climate policies and investments aligned with the Paris Agreement temperature goal could increase global GDP by around 0.2% by 2040, compared with current policies. This estimate does not account for avoided climate damages which would further strengthen the economic case. Second, ensuring national climate plans are investable. While countries have made significant progress in developing climate plans, implementation, as we heard today, is often constrained by financing gaps, investment barriers, and limited institutional capacity. The priority now is to translate climate commitments into credible investment pipelines and practical implementation strategies. The third priority is mobilizing finance, particularly in emerging and developing economies. Our work focuses on strengthening country-led investment plans and platforms while addressing systemic barriers across the global financial system. Progress on both fronts will be essential to mobilize public and private capital at the scale required. Thank you very much, Chair. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [1:03:58]: Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador. Now I would like to give the floor to Gianpiero Nacci from EBRD Flow Research. EBRD · Gianpiero Nacci [1:04:20]: Distinguished guests, friends, and colleagues, as EBRD, but also as MDBs, we welcome and support the launch of BRIDGE. I'd like to congratulate you and your team for a tremendous effort to bring BRIDGE here to New York and, of course, at COP31 in Antalya. We particularly like the focus on implementation. Ultimately, this is what MDBs are about. We ultimately implement projects, we finance projects, we create the conditions to make them happen. And in this context, the focus on prioritization and aggregation are important elements that characterize BRIDGE. We also welcome and support the link to bankable projects and the focus on the connections with the capital market and in general, the financial community from the onset. As MDBs, we believe we have the product, the program, the capacities to successful deployment of the objective. As EBRD, we particularly welcome the inclusion of Uzbekistan as one of the country in the first cohort, and we stand ready to support the governments of Uzbekistan to develop a bankable project and make BRIDGE a successful model, a replicable model to scale up climate finance. I thank you. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [1:05:36]: Thank you, Mr. General Manager. Now I would like to give the floor Ambassador Mohammed Khalil from GCF. Floor is yours. GCF · Ambassador · Mohammed Khalil [1:05:59]: Distinguished colleagues, at the outset, congratulations on carrying this important work and initiative and launching it here in New York. For the Green Climate Fund, it has been a privilege to provide input to the development of the climate implementation bridge, including at the recent Istanbul Climate Finance Summit. One thing is clear. The bridge is not intended to create a new facility, but rather complement and build on the existing mechanisms and institutions. As we dialogue today, the real test is to efficiently address the following key issues in our view, ensure country ownership, build national capacity, turn priorities into investable pipelines, mobilize finance, and measure what actually works. This is in perfect alignment with the Green Climate Fund. So we have the Readiness Program of $0.5 billion, making it one of the world's largest dedicated climate capacity building initiatives. Almost 60 GCF Country Liaison Officers have been deployed to countries working inside national ministries. 16 country platforms have been launched with the support of GCF with a country platform knowledge hub co-chaired by Brazil and Uganda. And project preparation facility and concessional finance alongside our private sector facility. And finally, a department dedicated to monitoring, evaluation and learning. Your Excellency Minister, as an operating entity of the UNFCCC financial mechanism and as the UN climate finance arm, GCF receives the guidance from the COP, which you will be sharing in Antalya. For GCF, the bridge is a partnership that we are ready to deliver as part of your COP31 action agenda, the Secretary. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [1:08:14]: Thank you very much, Mr. Mohamed. Now I would like to give the floor to NDC Partnership Global Director, Pablo Viveira. NDC Partnership · Country Platform Hub · Global Director · Pablo Viveira [1:08:24]: Thank you very much, Excellency. Thank you for having us here. At the NDC Partnership, we have been following very closely the development of the Climate Implementation Bridge, and we're particularly interested in the focus on the challenge that we hear every day from countries around the world, how to move from NDC commitments to implementation at a greater speed and scale. Bridge provides a significant opportunity to make the different parts of the whole implementation ecosystem and finance ecosystem work better together. Countries are already working through their NDCs on identifying priorities, on implementation barriers, and identifying their specific needs. At the same time, there's significant support in terms of capacity building, technical assistance out there being coordinated through the NDC partnership, for example, that includes UNDP and the Climate Promise, MDBs, vertical funds, non-state actors, and others. So the value of the bridge is really helping scale and reinforce these connections to respond to country priorities. We provide 10 years of experience that we bring to the table to support the bridge at this point. We're very happy to support country engagement on the ground and to provide our resources so that countries have what they need to implement their commitments. Let me take one more minute, Excellency, to speak also on behalf of the Country Platform Hub. The Country Platform Hub was launched at COP and through its core partners, NDC partnership, GCF, UNDP, GCBC, FIX and IDFC, we have already a cohort of around 50 countries that have expressed interest in advancing country platforms. And we feel the bridge will be a critical element in supporting this very ambitious plans from the countries. So we were happy also to bring the country platform home as a contribution to the effectiveness of the bridge. Thank you so much. Here the important thing is that we come together to serve countries on what they need. And we're happy to provide that support. Thank you, sir. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [1:10:34]: Well, thank you very much for providing us with this service. Now I would like to give the floor to Climate Investments Partners, James Topin. The floor is yours. CIF · James Topin [1:10:51]: Thank you. Your Excellency, distinguished guests, thank you for this opportunity to be here and address the floor, and thank you for your leadership on climate. For those who are here who may not know us, the climate investment funds were the largest pool of concessional money that's directly and exclusively serving the major multilateral development banks. We actually are also the only non-IFI fund, climate fund, that is now issuing our own bonds and accessing capital markets. I flag that here because in a time where global official development assistance is heavily constrained and even declining, I think it's really important that we focus on the finance and demonstrate to donorship that we're doing more with what we already have. And to that end, just thrilled with Turkey's leadership on the climate implementation bridge. This goes hand in hand with how the SIF works, which is about focusing on local ownership, national, nationally driven plans. We've been doing that for 17 years, and our programmatic model has been evaluated externally, and we'd be happy to put everybody to sleep with those results. But we're thrilled to and are looking forward to Antalya and to showcasing with you and the multilateral development banks, particularly EBRD, the World Bank, and the IFC. and even the Asian Development Bank, how we can showcase Turkey's global leadership on industry decarbonization and on climate action, thanks to its national green finance strategy and action plan, and the largest in the world to date, and Turkey's industry decarbonization investment platform. Again, thank you for this opportunity and this honor. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [1:13:07]: Well, thank you very much, Jacob. Last but not least, I want to give the floor to Claire Balcar. 2050 Pathways Platform · Claire Balcar [1:13:23]: Turkish Presidency and for inviting us here today. The 2050 Pathways Platform works with countries and partners on the tools, the processes, and the capacities needed to navigate and deliver the transition, which has given us experience in identifying some of the barriers and opportunities, some of which have been mentioned today. And the work across countries always comes back to the issue of the strength of the national systems through which implementation has to happen. And ultimately, these systems have to translate climate objectives into implementation and sustain that over time. We know it's a moment where demands are also growing because implementation increasingly means we must connect across sectors, across levels of government, and with a much wider set of national priorities. And that's an important progress, but it also means that national systems have to develop the capabilities to manage these connections and respond to the complexity of the implementation agenda at a moment where a lot of countries, a lot of institutions and systems have significant constraints. So international support is critical to helping to strengthen systems and implementation platforms, but we also need flexibility in how technical assistance, capacity support, and finance are designed and delivered. It also means looking at success in terms of not just what a project delivers today, but whether it strengthens the capacity to keep delivering tomorrow. So this is why we so much welcome the direction of the Climate Implementation Bridge to connect and create a space where countries and partners can learn from implementation to test assumptions and to adjust support based on experience. This is also where the 2050 Pathways Platform will contribute. Together with countries and more than 40 partners, we're examining what we've learned what enables lasting in-country implementation capacity and what that means for international support. So at COP31, we'll bring those findings and practical recommendations into the Climate Implementation Bridge, work with countries and partners to test and apply that learning and practice and continue to contribute through the bridge. Thank you very much. Türkiye · COP31 President-designate · Murat Kurum [1:15:31]: Well, thank you very much, Claire. We have listened to all of the speakers and I would like to thank every one of you for your views, your experiences and your contributions. We have spoken at length and we will be expecting to hear your views and your contributions to the Climate Implementation Bridge. And this will enable us to use our facilities in a more effective manner. This is what we are fighting for. We don't mean to make another pledge, another commitment. We have underlined the importance of turning these commitments into action and through serve, through bridge. And by making sure that the least developed countries adopt a circular economy understanding. We will be working hard for the implementation. I would like to thank Ethiopia, Fijis, Uzbekistan, Pakistan. And I wish a great success to you. Hopefully we will achieve great results all together. Of course there will be difficulties that we will face, yet we will keep working hard and share our learnings with the other countries as well. Now there is a concrete era of implementation ahead of us on the way to Antalya and we would like to further strengthen our cooperation with our partners and make sure that we start implementing and We are expecting you to actively contribute to bridge with your experience, with your know-how, with your experience. Thank you very much for your contributions and it will be a great pleasure to host you all in Antalya in November along with Australia and I would like to invite you on behalf of Australia as well. Thank you all very much. I wish this will bring greater success to all of us. Thank you.