 Ladies and gentlemen, friends, and colleagues, I'm honored to join you by video as you close the 7th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation. I truly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today, and I regret that I cannot be there in person. Since this is the first major community adaptation conference since COP 18 in Doha, I hope you have had the opportunity to reflect on where we are with climate action and take the next steps towards a bright future for community-based adaptation. Let me share with you my perspective on why I think the future is bright. The Nairobi Work Program has to date engaged over 270 partner organizations and catalyzed nearly 200 action pledges. The three-year work plan of the Adaptation Committee has been adopted, and the committee is one step closer to providing technical advice and support to regional organizations, stakeholders, and communities. The least developed countries' expert group just last week released technical guidelines that enable LDCs to begin developing their national adaptation plans that make sense for their countries, their communities. COP 18 in Doha provided guidance to the Global Environment Facility to support development of national adaptation plans, and in Doha, parties agreed to establish international arrangements this year to address loss and damage. These milestones take us one step closer to accomplishing our goal of getting tactics, strategies, and resources to those who need the most, the on-the-ground communities the most vulnerable. Our ability to adapt to climate change depends to a large extent on the sustained momentum of this progress. We cannot delay the rollout and scaling up of these programs. We need a stronger global adaptation framework as quickly as possible. But my friends, let's be frank. Many communities can simply not wait for a stronger global adaptation framework to evolve. They are facing dire daily realities today. I recently had the opportunity to visit the village of Daco, a low-lying community on the Pacific Island state of Fiji. Daco village is flooded at high tide already. Ocean crabs have made their home in the central village green. Many homes sit on permanently wet land with severe health implications for children and for adults. The villagers are building dykes all around the community. The elders are raising funds to build culverts, flap gates, and drainage systems to address sea level rise and saltwater inundation from high tide intrusion. The villagers of Daco have rolled up their sleeves and are doing what is urgently needed to safeguard their future. But they cannot be left alone. They need national and international support. Our work on adaptation, our efforts at planning, coordinating, and funding is not done until the global framework we are creating is able to maximize national-level efforts and these in turn reach down to the Daco villages around the world with concrete support. At the same time, it is the concerted actions of villagers of concerned community leaders which reverberate upwards into national, social, and economic development. Adaptation measures create positive changes in communities and accelerate economic development. And countries that see growth as compatible with adaptation practices are more likely to share this experience and be open to global agreement that decreases global emissions and increases local adaptation. And so I invite you all to take what you have learned at this conference back to your respective communities, back to your respective countries, and put it into motion. Innovate. Activate stakeholders and escalate action at all levels and on all fronts. It is not just mitigation that will provide the solution. It is not just technological advancement that will solve the problem. It is not just adaptation. It is not just any one country or one community working on its own. It is the combination of mitigation and adaptation. It is all of us at all levels working together to address the climate challenge that is our best and indeed our only chance of success. Thank you for your good work. Thank you for continuing to work.