The UN Climate Change Conference is the only global forum we have on our planet for agreeing joint responses to the climate crisis. The freedom of future generations is at stake. Because they are the ones who will feel the effects of our inaction if we do not act now.

Never before has a Climate Change Conference taken place against such a difficult geopolitical backdrop. The fact that 197 states have nonetheless gathered round the negotiating table gives grounds for hope, but also shows how urgent the situation already is. For many people, the climate crisis is not the future. It is their reality. That is why every tenth of a degree of a reduction in global warming is worth fighting for at COP27.

Particularly hard-hit countries that are not responsible for the carbon emissions of industrial countries like Germany are rightly demanding protection against loss and damage caused by climate change. Getting this demand onto the Climate Change Conference agenda for the first time is an important opener, but we need to build on it now. There is still a difficult path ahead before we can reach a substantial agreement; in some cases, opinions still differ greatly. In order to find answers along with the particularly affected countries, we must be ready to tread new paths – and we expect the same from others. That means, for example, thinking about reduction and financing at the same time.

We are committed to ensuring that this Climate Change Conference sends a clear signal for the end of the fossil age and for a more rapid reduction of emissions. Because if we are not more ambitious when it comes to switching to renewable energies, then we will miss the 1.5 degree target by a mile. That is why this Government has massively upped the pace on the shift to green energy. Germany will be climate-neutral by 2045 at the latest. At COP27, we will form alliances with other countries to support them in their transition to sustainable energy.