The Right Honourable Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda.
Your Excellencies, Heads of Government, Heads of Delegation, Honourable Ministers.
Our host Dr Andrew Forrest.
Business and nongovernment organisation leaders.
It’s a pleasure to be here, on the Green Pioneer, for a green pioneer – to honour the environmental leadership of His Majesty The King.
Protecting and restoring nature is a global, intergenerational compact.
And that is the ambition at the heart of the Commonwealth Nature Initiative.
To bring together governments, philanthropy and business, mobilising greater investment towards our shared goal of protecting 30 per cent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030.
Australia is putting this principle into practice.
As of this year, around a quarter of both Australia’s vast landmass and our ocean is protected.
But we know there is more work to do.
With four years to 2030, we must accelerate our efforts to achieve that goal.
That is why we have released Australia’s Sustainable Ocean Plan, supporting our commitment to sustainably manage 100 per cent of our ocean.
It is why we have ratified the High Seas Biodiversity Treaty and why we are working with partners in our region to support its implementation.
And because ambition must be backed by investment, this year Australia confirmed our ongoing support for the Global Environment Facility, supporting biodiversity and environmental action in developing countries.
We are also investing closer to home with work with our friends in Papua New Guinea, but also Indonesia and Timor-Leste to our north to tackle discarded fishing nets and marine debris.
This commitment to nature goes hand in hand with our commitment to climate action.
Last month, I was proud to join Fiji and Tuvalu to co-host Pre-COP meeting in the Pacific.
For low-lying small island states especially – whether it is in our region, or here in Antigua and Barbuda – climate change is an existential threat.
Australia’s commitment is clear: we are with you in facing the challenge, but also the opportunity of dealing with climate change.
And this ship itself is an example of the opportunity that is there for greater economic activity, not less, by acting on climate change.
Protecting nature and responding to climate change calls for collective action.
Partnerships like the Commonwealth Nature Initiative are central – that is what brings us together today.
When we share our experience, when we replicate best practice, when we use economic systems to drive that change, because renewable energy will lower costs, not increase them, and will boost economic growth and productivity.
Then together we can be successful, and I congratulate all involved on this initiative, but particularly the leadership of His Majesty King Charles III.