Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour to join you today on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme.

Allow me to begin by expressing our sincere appreciation to H.E. Murat Kurum, COP31 President-designate, and the Government of Türkiye, for their constructive, inclusive, and forward-looking leadership as we collectively prepare for COP31. We also commend Azerbaijan, Brazil, Australia, the Pacific SIDS, and Ethiopia for their continued commitment and leadership, along with the strong cooperation, which is essential for continuity and ambition across COP29, COP30, COP31 and COP32.

The message we hear clearly today is that COP31 will reinforce the era of implementation. One in which global climate ambition is matched with credible action, finance, and accountability. Where the climate and development agendas converge at scale. UNDP strongly welcomes and aligns with this vision, as the UN System’s largest implementer of climate action, and stands ready to fully leverage our expertise, experience and ongoing support to ensure a successful COP31.

In particular, we are honoured that the COP31 Presidency has formally entrusted UNDP with the mandate to help design the Climate Action Implementation Mechanism, in alignment with the Global Implementation Accelerator (GIA) launched at COP30 in Belém.

This mandate reflects a shared recognition that implementation requires coherence, systems, and trusted partners who can bridge climate and development across institutions, countries and sectors.

To deliver on this request, UNDP will leverage the existing effort and infrastructure of the Climate Promise: Forward. In response to the call from the UN Secretary General, this is our UN system-wide framework of support to countries to accelerate implementation of NDCs and deliver broader sustainable development objectives.

The Climate Promise successfully brought together 30 UN entities to support over 100 countries to prepare their latest round of NDC ahead of COP30. As a next step, and at the directive of the UN Secretary-General, UNDP is leading the UN System’s Climate Promise: Forward to help countries accelerate delivery of these NDC and NAP pledges. Drawing on lessons learned from three generations of NDCs, where UNDP has supported nearly 90% of developing countries, this new unified framework defines critical levers for translating NDC and NAP priorities into investment-ready actions that drive national development priorities.

The Climate Promise will provide the delivery backbone of the Climate Action Implementation Mechanism. Building on this intelligence and infrastructure, the mechanisms will be a means of unlocking the high-impact priority areas for acceleration identified through the Global Implementation Accelerator. Working together, the GIA and Climate Implementation Mechanism will move the needle on NDC and NAP priorities across targeted sectors.

To operationalize this mechanism, UNDP—together with our UN partners, philanthropy, private sector, MDBs, NDCP, all relevant stakeholders, with the leadership of the COP31 Presidency—will work across three practical layers that help accelerate targeted actions:

1. Building bankable pipelines of policies and investments in priority NDC and NAP sectors, tailored to national contexts.
2. Designing blended-finance solutions that crowd in MDB, DFI and private finance at scale, including new instruments aligned with national priorities.
3. Strengthening national implementation systems - including MRV, fiduciary capacity, digital public infrastructure, and governance structures—to enable credibility, transparency and long-term sustainability.

These layers are designed to unlock real investment, accelerate delivery, and ensure that implementation remains country-driven, equitable, and aligned with the SDGs.

With a focus on finance as a driver, it becomes increasingly critical to recognize climate investments as an opportunity for driving economic transformation, resilience and inclusive growth.

Through the Climate Promise: Forward, the UN system will work with partners to support countries in unlocking these opportunities by improving fiscal readiness, catalyzing private finance, and preparing coherent investment pipelines.

COP31 offers a critical opportunity to demonstrate that global ambition can translate into global implementation.

Let me conclude with a simple but important message:

The era of implementation is not a slogan. It is a responsibility.

A responsibility shared by governments, development partners, civil society, the private sector, and the UN system.

A responsibility to ensure that NDCs deliver not only emissions reductions, but also jobs, resilience, prosperity, and justice.

A responsibility to restore trust in multilateralism by demonstrating that cooperation can deliver real outcomes for people and for the planet.

UNDP stands firmly with the COP Presidencies and with all Member States in delivering on this responsibility.

Thank you.