Prime Minister Edi Rama participated in the World Climate Action Summit COP 28, which is held every year, bringing together heads of state and government to determine responsibilities for climate action and to identify and evaluate climate measures.
On the second day of the Summit, which is being held in the United Arab Emirates this year, Prime Minister Edi Rama delivered the following remarks:
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As a representative of the Republic of Albania, but also of a region that is progressing fast, but is still developing in Europe, called the Western Balkans, I stand here before you today to share some thoughts.
We all know that for decades on end developing countries like ours have striven tirelessly to tackle development challenges while contending with the negative impact of climate change.
Although the Paris agreement was a beam of hope, a promise made by the world to protect our planet and its inhabitants, yet the reality falls short of the commitments made. To put it bluntly, the burden of climate action continues to fall disproportionately on the shoulders of developing countries, despite our minimal contribution to this crisis while the big polluters do their best to lecture us, but not to curb themselves.
However, what we do is what we believe in and we have committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally by 20.9% by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
Secondly, Rama continued, our country aims to become an energy leader in the region and a net exporter of energy by 2030, but you should know that Albania is one of the rare countries that has no carbon dioxide emissions from energy production.
Of course on the other hand, it faces an extreme hydrological risk because we depend on the climate even though we have already started the process of a full-scale diversification with wind and solar energy.
Thirdly, Albania has moved ahead with the implementation of nature-based solution practices in recent years, and this year the Vjosa, Europe’s last known wild river, has been designated a National Park in Albania. It was funny though, because the biggest and richest around us in Europe that have tamed all their rivers lectured us all the time about how important it was to have a wild river in Europe, but it doesn’t matter, laughing is good anyway and our commitment is unwavering and real, so we did it and we are fully committed to keep the momentum.
In the end, let me conclude with a special mention and thank from the bottom of my heart the host country of this great event, the United Arab Emirates and the leadership of this country, the visionary President Mohammed bin Zayed who is showing to our community of countries what it means to match words with actions and saying goodbye to everyone, I wish we could have more UAEs in our community of countries so that what is gloomy, we can make it lighter and our journey brighter.
Thank you very much!
