Second Committee – 18(d) – Protection of Global Climate for Present and Future Generations of Humankind
Statement by Sally Bateman, Climate Adviser, Permanent Mission of Australia to the UN
25 November 2025
Thank you, Chair
I am honoured to deliver this statement on behalf of Canada, New Zealand and my own country Australia.
CANZ countries voted yes today because we strongly believe that multilateral action remains our best hope of tackling climate change.
We make three simple points via this statement:
The first concerns how we refer to the Paris Agreement – now in its 10th year – and ongoing attempts by some to mischaracterize the
independent legal nature of the Paris Agreement.
This remains an unhelpful distraction from the primary issues at hand, and undermines the intention of the Paris Agreement to collectively limit the worst impacts of climate change.
Adopting a consistent and cross cutting approach which respects the Paris Agreement’s independent status could render our work much more effective in future sessions, and allow us to focus on the concrete actions which matter. The second concerns the utility of negotiating a climate text in 2C in parallel to the actual COP negotiations.
This session, doing so proved problematic and did not lead to a meaningful outcome for this body. We hope that as part of revitalisation considerations, the proponents would consider a refreshed way of reflecting climate action in this forum.
And third, we were disappointed this resolution fails to keep pace with important developments in climate policy, and in this respect does no portray the New Collective Quantified Goal and climate finance targets accurately.
As I close, CANZ would like to congratulate Brazil on the successful conclusion of COP30 last week. CANZ would like to reaffirm our commitment to ambitious climate action alongside our steadfast commitment to multilateralism more broadly.
In my National Capacity, I would also like to note that as President of Negotiations for COP31, Australia looks forward to working with COP President-designate Türkiye, to build on the legacy of Belém, as well as bringing the world to our region for pre-COP, and delivering tangible outcomes for the Pacific.
Australia remains steadfast in our commitment to our Pacific partnerships and to highlighting Pacific voices at COP31.
I thank you, Chair.