 because it's so obvious that for some people, some communities, some countries at this COP, the transformation that is happening now is not a matter for, as I was saying, it's for our children and our grandchildren. This is something that is an existential threat as we sit here in Glasgow today. And last year, 600 billion tons of ice melted away in Greenland. All that water has to go somewhere. And it's incredibly cruel that these vulnerable, small, our island states are right in the front line of the loss and damage that is caused by global warming. And of course, as they have said, as our friends have said, they have done virtually nothing to cause the problem. They didn't produce the huge volumes of CO2 that had been pumped into the atmosphere. So I would encourage every country that has benefited from pumping CO2 into the air over the last, whatever it is, 250 years, to join this campaign and to help. And that's why we've made the $100 billion a year commitment, the $100 billion a year commitment such a crucial part of the UK's presidency and pre-presidency. And I think that we've got to do it. We've got to help people to adapt. We've got to mitigate. But above all, we've got to change the numbers. We've got to bend the curve. We've got to stop this remorseless increase in CO2 because there are people around this from whose populations, vulnerable populations who have done nothing to deserve it, will be in the front line and will suffer catastrophic loss and damage. And by the way, it's those small island states. And Frank, everybody, all those small island states who at Paris managed to change the ambition and ensure that we didn't just commit to keeping the increase in temperatures to two degrees, but keep it to 1.5. Because they knew the difference. They knew the difference between 2 and 1.5. And it's the difference for many people. I don't want to exaggerate this, but the difference between life as we know it and not being able to continue with life as we know it, between life and death. And that's the reality. And that's the reality we have to face in all sincerity. And I think it was Frank who taught me yesterday something that I didn't know. About 1.5, there's a very simple way of expressing the desire to keep 1.5 alive and survive 1.5. That's to make this side. I think you've got that, Tariq. Did you know that, Narendra? You did already. It was a new one on me. Anyway, I want to do it now. Keep 1.5 alive, everybody. Thank you very much. I'm now going to hand over to the initiator of this vital initiative, my friend and colleague, Narendra Modi. Narendra, over to you. Excellent speech. Infrastructure for resident island states, iris, launch, a new asha jagata hain, new abiswas deta hain. Yeh sabse vulnerable desho ke liye kush karne ka santosh deta hain. Me is ke liye coalition for disaster, residential, infrastructure, CDRI ko bhajai deta hain. Is mahatapon manch par, me Australia aur UK sa meit sabhi sahi yogi desho aur bishse skar Mauritius aur Jame ka, sa mei chote drip samon ke leaders ka swagat krta hain. Unne hardik dhaniva deta hain. Me VN Secretary-General ka bhi aafhar vyakt krta hain ke unne iss launch ke liye apna bahumulli sa main diya. Excellent speech. Pichle kush dasakon ne siddh kia hain. Ti climate change ke prakob se koi bhi ashoota nahi hain. Chahi wo vikshi desho, ya phir prakruti k samsadhano se dhani desho sabhi ke liye, yeh bahut bada khatra hain. Lekin iss me bhi climate change se safse adi khatra small island developing states, seats ko hain. Ye un ke liye jivan vritti ki baat hain. Ye unke astitwa ke liye chunaoti hain. Climate change ki wajah se aai apda hain. Un ke liye sachbuch pralaya ka roop le sakti hain. Aise desho ke climate change nasirp unke jivan ki suraksha ke liye baat ki unki artha bausa ke liye bhi badi chunaoti hain. Aise desh, turism par bahut nirbar hain. Lekin prakruti aapudaun ke chalte. Turism bhi unke paas aane se gharate hain. Friends, baise to seats desh sadiog se nature ke saath samanvai me jeete rahe hain. We prakruti ke swaabhavi cycle ke saath adept karna jaamte hain. Lekin pichle kai dasa ko me hui swaarth pon ghehawar ki wajah se prakruti ka jo aswabhavi groop saamne aaya hain. Uska pranaam aaj nirdos small island states jeel rahe hain. Aar isliye mere liye CDRI ya iris. Sirif ek infrastruktur ki baat nahi hain. Baat ki ye manav kalyan ke atyant samvedan sil daithwa ka hisa hain. Ye manav jaati ke prati ham sabhi ki collective jimmedari hain. Ye ek tara se hamare papo ka saaja prayasit bhi hain. Friends, CDRI kisi seminar se nikli kalpana nahi hain. Baat ki CDRI ka janma barso ke manthan aur anubhav ka pannaam hain. Chote drip desho par mandra rahe climate change ke khatre ko bhaapte huye bharat ne Pacific Island aur Karikom desho ke saath Sahiyog ki liye visesh vibhastaye banai. Ham ne unke nagriko solar taknikon me train kia. Bahar infrastruktur ke vikas ke liy indaran tari yogdan diya. Iskadi me aaj iss platform par meh bharat ki aur se ek aur nahi pehal ki gosna kar rahe hain. Baharat ki space agency iss roh. Seeds ke liye ek special data window ko nirman karegi. Iss se seeds ko satellite ke mardem se. Cyclone, coral drip, monitoring, coastline, monitoring. Adi ka bare me timely jankari milti rahegi. Friends, iris ke sakar karne me CDRI aur seeds dono ne milkar kaam kia hain. Ye co-creation aur co-benefits ka achcha udara hain. Isliye me aaj iris ke launch ko bahot ahem maanta hum. Iris ke mardem se seeds ko technology, finance, javari jankari teji se mobilise karne me asani hogi. Small island states ke quality infrastruktur ko polsan milne se bahar jeevan aur aajibika dono ko laab milega. Mehne pehle bhi kaha hain ki duniya in desho ko kan kam jansengha ware small island ke rupne dekti hain. Lekin me in desho ko bare samarth haware large ocean states ke rupne dekta hum. Jaisse samudra se nikli moti ho ki mala sabki sobha badaati hain. Bhaise hi samudra se ghire seeds visva ki bhi sobha badaate hain. Me aap ko viswaaz dilata hum ki bharat is nahi peri yojana ko poora se yog dega aur iski sabharta ke liye CDRI, anne partner desho aur seyukta raas ke saad milkar kaam karega. CDRI aur sabi chote Deep Samo ko is nahi pehle ke liye peri se badaai aur sobhaam nahi. Bahut bahut, dhaniwal. Well, thank you very much, Prime Minister Modi and thank you for your great friendship to Australia, Narendra and for inviting us to join you here today at this important forum. Thank you also Boris, our COP26 Commander, not Commander Bond but Commander Boris and leading us through this very important few weeks and I particularly pleased to be here like both of you with our island state nations. Australia is also an island state. It's a very big island. It's the biggest island continent in the world but it does give us, I think, in the Pacific a very unique perspective as Frank knows on the challenges facing island nations all around the world. And what we're speaking about here, of course, to address climate change, you have to reduce emissions and that is a huge part of the response to climate change. Of course, but we also have to adapt to live with the consequences of climate change that is already occurring, that is already built in, that is already going to impact on the lives and livelihoods, particularly of those and island nations all around the world. And we recognise that in Australia and that's why working with everyone to adapt to climate change and the challenges in particularly that our Pacific family face is something that is very much in very practical ways a part of Australia's DNA. If there's anything we know, it's to stick with it and to make a commitment, to meet it and to beat it. And as our friends and family in the Pacific know and in Southeast Asia, we can be relied upon. We're helping our friends in Papua New Guinea build resilient roads, bridges and wharves with help build cyclone resistant produce markets for the Solomon Islands and Fiji. And last year, our prefabricated school rooms in Vanuatu with stood tropical cyclone held giving the community a safe place to shelter as well as the kids a chance to return to school sooner. Over 70% of our climate finance and we've just doubled that here at COP26 to two billion to take us out to 2025 is focused on adaptation. And a very large proportion of it as I was able to share with our Pacific nations families yesterday will be directed specifically into Pacific Island nation states as part of a direct partnership with them. Cutting out all the red tape and just getting the projects like the ones I've been talking about on the ground. The last eight major disasters in the Pacific alone have wrought more than almost $2 billion worth of damage. So there's a lot more work to be done. The joint initiative we launched today, Iris lifts our ambition further to ensure the resilience of small island developing states and through partnerships and expertise to drive even greater investment in quality infrastructure, energy, housing, transport, water, health care facilities. And I'm especially pleased to be here with my good friend Prime Minister Bhani Marama and Prime Minister Juganoff and Prime Minister Holness. It's a great pleasure to meet you. Leaders of three great small island nations. I also want to thank of course India and the United Kingdom for their leadership of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and I acknowledge in particular the Quad support, including the US and Japan support together with India for the CDRI. I'm proud that Australia has already announced our 10 million commitment towards getting Iris up and running and I'm proud to be here to launch it today. All of us are here because we believe in fair and practical action to address climate change. We're here because we're family, particularly amongst our Pacific family and all of us are here because we want to achieve those outcomes. Look out for another, look out for our mates as we say in Australia, stick together and let's get on with it. Sorry Scott, can I just add before we go to Frank can I just say one thing quickly which I should have said, which I forgot and unaccountably from my script. The UK is also of course contributing financially to Iris, to infrastructure resilient island states. A point that I would not wish this audience to be in ignorance of. We are, we're stumping up as well. Thank you. Thank you, Excellencies. Bula Venaka and a very good morning to you all. Excellencies, yesterday marked the start of cyclone season in the South Pacific. Period now defined by record smashing super storms that can erase years of infrastructure progress in a matter of hours. I know because I've seen it happen whether it's storms, floods or fires, the same hard lessons are being learned around the world. Building to last year's standards is building to lose. The world is warming, the impacts are terrifying and the standards we build must be defined by and ready for those intensifying risks. It takes resources to build resilience but we either pay to adapt now or pay a much higher price in the aftermath of climate driven devastation. By becoming the first developing state to enact a comprehensive climate change act, Fiji will be required to adapt our building codes and standards to the climate reality and be inclusive of our green priorities. But there is a gap, trillions of dollars deep between what vulnerable nations have and what they need to build resilience to a climate crisis we did next to nothing to cause. The welfare of people both in developed and developing nations depends on changes on the way we build and plan. Trillions of dollars may sound insurmountable but the alternative is unthinkable. Even now we are seeing what can happen when worsening climate driven disasters meet outdated infrastructure and transport networks. Unchecked carbon emissions could see the foundation of our interconnected global marketplace fall out from under us. We can only bridge the financing gap between vulnerability and resilience if we fully enlist public and private sector sources of funding. We welcome India's launch of the infrastructure resilience project for small island states. It's a promising start. Prime Minister Modi sir, thank you. Thank you for your leadership. We trust this initiative will reach well beyond technical assistance and capacity building to unlock trillions in private sector capital. It can do that by the risking critical investments now that will build resilience for those on the front line of the climate crisis. Feed this relocation and displace people's trust fund which establishes a proven process to move at risk communities and their infrastructure is one example of where those funds can make an impact. Of course the single most important measure we must take to protect our development progress is to drastically curtail the emissions that are changing the climate and forcing this crisis upon us. That is the responsibility of every nation but the greater burden falls justly on the greater emitters, greatest emitters if I say. If we fail to dramatically cut emissions, if we fail to move swiftly and immediately to free ourselves of our reliance on fossil fuels, we will fly past the 1.5 degree guard rail towards the levels of warming that totally will impend our understanding of resilience. It is the future that we are gathered here in Glasgow to prevent at all costs. Let's not forget it. Thank you. We now go back a little. Excellencies, friends, allow me to commend and congratulate the conveners of this timely initiative and to thank Prime Minister Modi in particular for his invitation. I will recall the meeting between India and the Karakam leaders on the margins of the Ungar a few years ago when Pierre Modi listened to our developmental concerns and pledged his support. In Jamaica, our resilience-building efforts will shortly be boosted by a US $1 million grant from India to support the construction of facilities for sustainable agriculture. The initiative being launched today rightly focuses attention on SIDS as we are on the frontline of the climate crisis. As we all know, a single disaster can derail the entire budget of a small island developing state and set its economy back by years, reducing our fiscal space to finance climate adaptation and resilience efforts. Jamaica therefore sees capital investment both as a tool for economic growth enhancement but also as a tool for climate-proofing. It is in this context that we welcome this much-needed initiative that reflects our own thinking around the pivotal role played by infrastructure in building resilience. In fact, the government of Jamaica is currently co-hosting the seventh UN regional platform for disaster risk reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean under the theme building resilient economies. Jamaica believes in innovation as part of our national strategy and with development partners and the private sector, Jamaica will become the first country in the world to develop a predictive climate risk assessment planning tool for major infrastructure investments. Let me also share one transformational infrastructure project for which we're seeking support. We have conceptualized a solar-pumped, hydroelectric storage project, similar to ones that you have done in Australia, utilizing our mountainous topography and abundant sunlight to solve our perennial problems of drought while at the same time generating hydroelectric power. This would make clean, sustainable use of Jamaica's high concentration of fresh water resources in the north of our country to serve the large population centers and drought-prone agricultural south. In closing, again, I thank the conveners for their leadership in building this critical and practical coalition to advance the development of climate-resilient infrastructure. This is at the heart of building economic resilience in SIDS and a positive and decisive step in ensuring that we keep our commitment for 1.5. That's it. Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, we have great pleasure in joining you this morning for the launching of the infrastructure for resilient island states by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. Since inception two years ago by Srinarendra Modi G, the coalition has grown into a global partnership platform to assist states, big and small, in improving disaster resilience of the infrastructure. Mauritius is proud to associate itself with the launch of IRIS, a SIDS-specific initiative that will undoubtedly help this group of countries to become more resilient, promote inclusive infrastructure, and ultimately achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. SIDS remain in the top list of the current World Risk Report 2021 of countries with high risk indices. Our island is negatively impacted by the effects of climate change, extreme weather events occur frequently, flash floods have resulted in loss of lives, and cause serious damage to infrastructure. To build resilience, my government has invested massively in adaptation programs. A national flood management program costing 11.7 billion rupees will be implemented. Our national action plan 2020-2030 embodies the commitments of Mauritius to the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction and supports the implementation of international frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway. In addition, legal and institutional frameworks have been updated to implement disaster reduction strategies and disaster management. I wish to highlight that infrastructure and disaster risk reduction is very high in the adaptation measures that are contained in our reviewed nationally determined contributions. However, access to international financial support remains a critical component for building resilience. The use of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index developed by the UNDP earlier this year is crucial to advancing global understanding of inherent vulnerabilities of the SIDS. By better understanding the existential issues that SIDS face, we are hopeful that innovative mechanisms such as the Iris will flourish. Coupled with that we've adapted financing, such partnerships would go a long way towards assisting SIDS mitigate their disaster vulnerability and improve the resilience of their infrastructure. Thank you. Small island developing states or SIDS are home to unique landscapes, vibrant cultures and traditions. However, SIDS also face the highest disaster losses in proportion to their GDP. They face large economic, social and environmental challenges compounded by climate change threatening their very existence. Resilient infrastructure is a key driver in mitigating disaster and climate risks while also meeting the development aspirations of SIDS. SIDS are already taking actions to implement the Samoa pathway. But this cannot be done alone. There is a need for broader partnerships for resilient island nations. The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure is a global partnership that aims to build climate and disaster resilience into infrastructure systems to ensure sustainable development. I would like to say that CDRI has set a challenging and urgent agenda for itself. The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. The UK is proud to be its co-chair. We are all at the front lines.