Moldovan PM's speech at UN Conference on Climate Change (COP31)

Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I thank the COP31 Presidency, President Erdoğan, and the people of Turkey for the hospitality with which they have welcomed us to Antalya.

In March, this year, families in northern Moldova turned on their taps, but no water came out.

A Russian attack on a hydroelectric power plant in Ukraine caused petroleum products to spill downstream into the Dniester River—the river that runs through both countries. For more days, families living along the river depended on deliveries of drinking water.

A few months later, we were watching the same river for another reason. After months of drought, the water level in the main reservoir on the upper Dniester was more than ten meters below normal. The government I lead was preparing for the possibility that the water intake pumps would no longer have sufficient water.

For a small country like Moldova, the consequences of war, climate change and environmental degradation do not stop at national borders. Neither can our response be limited to those borders.

These experiences have also reaffirmed a lesson we learned from successive energy crises: our security depends on resilience and on reducing our dependence on resources that we cannot control.

And we are making progress.

Just six years ago, renewable sources provided approximately 3 per cent of Moldova’s electricity. Today, that share is approaching 30 per cent.

For a country that has faced the use of energy as a weapon, every kilowatt-hour we can produce from our own solar and wind resources gives us a little more freedom.

But producing more clean energy is only part of the solution. We must also build the infrastructure that will allow us to make full use of it.

That is why, we are investing in strengthening interconnections with our European neighbors. In this regard, Turkey is an important partner. A Turkish company will build a new power line connecting Balti, in Moldova, with Suceava, in Romania, thereby strengthening our access to the European electricity market.

At the same time, we are investing in the natural resources on which our communities depend. Through the National Afforestation Programme, we aim to plant and rehabilitate approximately 145,000 hectares of forest by 2032.

All these efforts are part of a broader commitment. Under the Paris Agreement, Moldova has committed to reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2035, compared with 1990 levels.

We take this commitment very seriously. And we are determined to fulfill it.

But determination at the national level will not be enough.

Two years ago, at COP29 in Baku, President Maia Sandu reminded the world of a fundamental injustice: countries such as Moldova contribute very little to global emissions; yet, our farmers, families, and communities are already paying a high price for climate change.

We are investing our own resources, transforming our energy sector, protecting our forests and adapting to climate change.

But countries with the greatest resources and bearing the greatest historical responsibility for emissions must also fulfill their share of the responsibility. Climate finance must become more accessible, more predictable and reach the countries and communities that need it most.

Moldova is fulfilling its share of the responsibility, despite the challenges we face. We ask others to prove the same commitment, because no country can address the climate crisis alone.

Thank you.