Excellencies and Colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the 4^th Meeting of the Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group, here in this beautiful city of Chennai. As the ECSWG draws to a close with this final meeting over the next three days, let us remind ourselves of the intense journey so far:

• We started with the circulation of the Working Group Issue Note and Concept Notes of various thematic topics in January

• The 1^st ECSWG meeting took place in February, wherein we got together in person to ideate on the priorities of this working group and expectations from G20 countries

• In March, the India Presidency circulated the outline of the Outcome document followed by detailed deliberations during the 2^nd ECSWG meeting in the same month

• Incorporating inputs shared by countries, the first draft of the Outcome document was developed and circulated in April. Thereafter, virtual and in-person line by line deliberations took place during the 3^rd ECSWG meeting.

• Following the 3^rd ECSWG meeting, we have met for more than 40 virtual line by line negotiations on the Outcome document and outcome documents, with more than 300 hours of negotiations.

Colleagues,

I would like to state that, more than 100 delegates from all G20 countries, invited nations and international organisations have contributed immensely towards the outcomes of this working group, and I express my gratitude to all who have participated thus far. This is a testament to the unwavering commitment we have, to fight the interconnected challenges of climate and environment, and we get one final opportunity in this concluding meeting of the working group to meet with success, under the G20 India Presidency. Besides the Outcome document, the Indian Presidency under this working group has produced rich documentation in the form of compendiums of best practices, and technical documents. I thank countries and International Organisations for their contributions towards these Presidency documents and I hope that these will aid nations and organisations to suitably utilize findings from the studies.

The sessions of today and tomorrow have been planned with a view to discuss the ECSWG Outcome document, and in order to best optimize the available time, parallel discussions for climate and environment have been organized. We must consolidate our collective hard work till now, to aid our Ministers in shaping an Ambitious, Inclusive, Action-Oriented and Decisive Statement of Intent at the Ministerial meeting of 28 July, that well represents the leadership position of the G20 nations to the rest of the world.

Colleagues,

I seek your support in forging consensus on the Outcome document during the proceedings of the next two days, and it is in this context that I would, on behalf of the Indian Presidency, put forth a set of requests:

1. Acceptance on previously aligned multilaterally agreed language
2. Avoidance of reopening text that is already aligned via our virtual sessions, highlighted in green
3. Non insertion of new topics into the present draft of Outcome document

Delegates,

At this stage, we have some remaining issues that require to be resolved over today and tomorrow across various sections of the Outcome document and it is critical that we together identify solutions for agreement. I am confident that all delegates share this sentiment and will fully cooperate on ensuring that our collective efforts over the last seven months come to a fruitful and meaningful conclusion through a successful Outcome document.

Thank you

 

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