Killer storms, droughts, repeated monumental flooding and heat records: the climate crisis is the greatest security challenge of our age. It rages irrespective of elections. This has been demonstrated in a devastating manner by the floods in Spain and the recent hurricanes in the United States. They also show: we must come together as an international community and do everything in our power to ensure that the 1.5 target agreed in Paris remains within reach.

COP29 in Baku will be a hands-on conference. At the UN Climate Conference, we will work hard to accelerate the implementation of what we as an international community have already decided, such as fully transitioning away from fossil energies and rapidly expanding renewable energies. This also means learning from each other in order to deploy good solutions, be it on solar, wind, grids or storage across the globe.

We want to agree a new approach to global climate finance. Everyone who can afford it to contribute is now called upon to take action – traditional industrialised countries as well as all states with sufficient economic strength. So that we can work together to support a just transition to climate neutrality and resilience in even the most vulnerable and at-risk states. It is also clear that public funds alone will not be enough: the private sector needs incentives to step up its investment.

We all realise that these negotiations will not be easy. But they are worth the effort: every tenth of a degree of global warming that we manage to avert means fewer crises, less suffering, less displacement. And new opportunities for us all, opportunities which the green transformation will bring.

The global energy transition is progressing faster than ever before. Almost a third of the world's electricity worldwide now comes from renewable, climate-friendly sources. In Germany, too, we are also contributing to this: well over half of the electricity in this country is now produced from wind and solar power. A tripling of renewable energies by 2030, as agreed at COP28, is therefore possible.

Nevertheless, we need to take further steps. We must ensure that renewable energies can be reliably integrated into the grid and that even more countries are put in a position to expand and restructure their energy supply climate-neutral. To this end, the World Climate Conference in Baku must set the right course.

At the same time, we are ushering in a new implementation phase in which industrial decarbonization comes into focus. The Climate Club chaired by Germany and Chile with 42 members from industrialized, emerging and developing and developing countries is doing fundamental work in this regard. Our common goal is to successfully avert the global threat of climate change and to ensure the long-term protection of our natural environment. This is the only way we can preserve a world worth living in. Renewable energies and a largely carbon-free economy is a prerequisite for this.

Two thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions are today emitted by developing countries and emerging economies. That is why it is so important that worldwide, efforts are made to stop climate change. In Paris in 2015, the international community gave a promise of solidarity: Those who are not able to transition into a climate-friendly future on their own, will receive support. This promise must now be reaffirmed and updated in Baku.

This means, first: Countries that have so far not been traditional donors but have the necessary economic power should make a contribution in the future. Second, given tight public budget constraints, private climate investment will have to play a key role. Creating the right policy environment will become all the more important – in Germany and in our partner countries. There are many openings for international cooperation in this context. Germany will contribute proactively and remain a reliable partner.

The effects of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution are becoming more and more threatening and visible. Not only in the particularly affected countries of the South, but also here in Germany and Europe. The World Conference on Nature in Cali made it clear once again that we can only counter the climate crisis if we consistently protect nature, stabilise the global water balance and curb the overexploitation of our natural resources.

In Dubai, we were able to enshrine the circular economy in the COP28 Cover Decision. In Baku, we are now working to ensure that countries take action to advance a circular economy. After Baku, this also means pushing for an end to plastic pollution in the negotiations for a global plastics treaty in Busan. Plastic is not only harmful to the environment and human health, but also to the climate. Globally, the plastics sector already emits three times as much greenhouse gases as Germany. At this year's climate conference, I want to build a bridge from Cali via Baku to Busan.