Minister van Klaveren,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good evening to all of you!

This is indeed a good evening!

36 countries are gathered here today.

36 members of the Climate Club who are part of its official launch.

What is more, I am convinced there we will be more of us by the next COP. 

We come from all regions of the world.

United by the shared conviction that climate change is the greatest challenge of the 21st century. 

United also by a common goal: to decarbonise industries and to decouple growth from emissions. 

As members of the Climate Club,

we commit to developing the right strategies and standards for a carbon-free industrial sector together.
And we agree to coordinate our methodologies, to compare our efforts.
This will enable us to scale-up the lead markets for climate-neutral industrial products, such as climate-friendly steel, cement or aluminium.

We will do that step by step by exchanging goods, knowledge and technologies. My idea is to use the transformation we are all working on to create wealth and good jobs globally and to help countries in the Global South to leapfrog to climate-neutral industries without compromising their right to development.

Our Climate Club supports the Paris Agreement.
We are simply strengthening the cooperation between countries that are willing to go one step further.

***

We are not starting from scratch today.

Over the last 12 months, we have laid the groundwork for the Club to work.

The governance arrangement has been approved. A fully functioning interim secretariat has been established.

We are ready to go!

Kudos to the OECD and the IEA who are also here with us today for their great work.

And, Minister van Klaveren, we also owe Chile our deepest gratitude.

Without your brotherly support, we would not be standing here today!

From the very beginning, the Climate Club was open and inclusive, reaching far beyond the original founding circle of the G7.

A look around this room shows that we made good on this idea. The Climate Club unites developing countries, emerging economies, and industrialised countries – both old and new. Drawing from our different perspectives and finding solutions that work for all – that will be the Club’s greatest strength.

Our joint Task Force has already prepared a first work programme with activities for 2024.

In my view, three elements are particularly important: 

Firstly: Speeding up the technical groundwork for a standardised calculation of CO2 intensities for selected products;
Secondly: Launching a strategic exchange on definitions for near-zero emissions for steel and cement. We need definitions that work for all of us;

And thirdly, setting up a platform which matches individual members’ needs with available technical and financing instruments from private and public sources.

The steel and cement sector are considered “hard to abate”. And yet, these account for the majority of industrial emissions.

Facilities in these industries are traditionally long-lived and capital-intensive. So, there is a real risk of locking in emissions.

As soon as the technical works for calculating emission intensities in sectors such as steel or cement production are completed, we have the blueprints – or should I say “greenprints” – to decarbonise them. Other sectors can follow.

This will not only send much-needed investment signals to our domestic industries but will also provide orientation for other countries.

It is our task as political leaders to develop the regulatory framework for green lead markets step by step. That’s what the Climate Club will help us do.

As co-chair, Germany is committed to deliver on the goals we set ourselves for 2024 and beyond. We will invest considerable resources and promise to work hard.

But I would also like to invite all of you to make full use of your membership and to feed your ideas and proposals into the various workstreams. This Club is your Club!

I am sure that this spirit of cooperation will guide us successfully through the turbulent times we are in.

After all, our goals are widely shared:

We want to make decarbonised industrial production the business model of the future.

We want to boost clean growth.

And we want to do it fast.

Thanks for being part of this global effort!

And thanks for joining the Club!

And now it is my pleasure to hand over to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Chile, Alberto van Klaveren.