00:00Some important progress has been made, but it worries me greatly that we remain so dreadfully far off track, as
00:11the Global Stock Take report demonstrates so graphically.
00:16The dangers are no longer distant risks. I have seen across the Commonwealth and beyond countless communities which are unable
00:28to withstand repeated shocks, whose lives and livelihoods are laid waste by climate change.
00:36As I've tried to say on many occasions, unless we rapidly repair and restore nature's unique economy, based on harmony
00:46and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperiled.
00:55Records are now being broken so often that we are perhaps becoming immune to what they are really telling us.
01:06When we see the news that this last Northern Hemisphere summer, for instance, was the warmest global average temperature on
01:16record, we need to pause to process what this actually means.
01:23We are taking the natural world outside balanced norms and limits and into dangerous uncharted territory.
01:34We are carrying out a vast, frightening experiment of changing every ecological condition all at once, at a pace that
01:46far outstrips nature's ability to cope, or as though our actions have no consequences.
01:55As you gather, ladies and gentlemen, for these critical negotiations, the hope of the world rests on the decisions you
02:02must take.
02:03I can only encourage you to consider some practical questions, which might inform the task ahead of you.
02:11Firstly, how can our multilateral organizations, which were established at a different time for different challenges, be strengthened for the
02:21crisis we face?
02:22How can we bring together our public, private, philanthropic and NGO sectors ever more effectively, so that they all play
02:33their part in delivering climate action, each complementing the unique strengths of the others?
02:41How can we draw on the extraordinary ingenuity of our societies, the ideas, knowledge, and energy of our young people,
02:49our artists, our engineers, our communicators, and importantly, our indigenous peoples,
02:57to imagine a sustainable future for people everywhere, a future that is in harmony with nature, not set against her?
03:09Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, in your hands is an unmissable opportunity to keep our common hope alive.
03:17I can only urge you to meet it with ambition, imagination, and a true sense of the emergency we face,
03:25and together with a commitment to the practical action upon which our shared future depends.
03:32After all, ladies and gentlemen, in 2050, our grandchildren won't be asking what we said.
03:39They will be living with the consequences of what we did or didn't do.
03:45So if we act together to safeguard our precious planet, the welfare of all our people will surely follow.
03:53And we need to remember, too, that the indigenous worldview teaches us that we are all connected, not only as
04:02human beings, but with all living things and all that sustains life.
04:06As part of this grand and sacred system, harmony with nature must be maintained.
04:15The earth does not belong to us.
04:18We belong to the earth.
04:21We belong to the earth.
04:21We belong to the earth.
04:21We belong to the earth.
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