Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
 
On behalf of the United Nations Development Programme China, I am pleased to welcome you all to this COP28 side event at the China Pavilion, co-hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on Accelerating the SDGs through Climate Action. 
 
Today, with the world facing escalating environmental degradation driven by unchecked climate change, the future outlook for both humanity and the planet is increasingly distressing. 
We are on pace for around 3 degrees of global warming by the end of the century, which would have disastrous effects – extreme heatwaves, massive flooding, and hundreds of millions of people displaced.
 
To avert this scenario and realize the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement, we must cut carbon emissions by almost half compared to 2010 levels by 2030 – our deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals. That’s only seven years away. Time is not on our side.
 
The only way to tackle the climate crisis – which transcends political, economic, and geographical boundaries – is through urgent, collective action. COP 28 provides us with an important platform to come together as a global community, reflect on the challenges before us, and chart a more ambitious course forward that is followed by concrete actions. 
 
To that end, one area where the fight against climate change must see rapid progress for the world to have any hope of realizing our Global Goals is in cities.
 
Cities account for over 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,[1] and by 2050, it is projected that they will be home to 68 percent of the global population.[2] At the same time, cities are also at the forefront of environmental and sustainability action, and are hubs of innovation and drivers of economic growth. They are leading the way in pioneering new approaches to facilitate green and inclusive pathways for the future.