Mr. President, Your Excellency Mr Secretary-General, Madam Executive Secretary, Excellencies, Distinguished delegates, Ladies and gentlemen,

1. South Africa has the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

2. At the outset, the Group wishes to express its full support to you Minister Fabius at this historic conference as you guide us towards a fair and ambitious outcome of this conference and we thank you for the leadership role you have played throughout the year with the President of COP20 from Peru.

3. This is indeed an historic moment for the G77 and China that is more united than ever before. The G77 and China represents about 85% of the world's population and there can be no meaningful agreement if the Group's concerns are not taken into account.

4. As developing countries, we share a common commitment to address the climate challenge in a manner that ensures that we achieve our goal of limiting temperature rise to safe levels, while at the same time allowing flexibility to developing countries to pursue their sustainable development priorities.

5. Our people suffer the effects of climate change first hand. In many cases, climate change threatens the very existence and survival of countries, societies and the ecosystems of our Mother Earth. In light of this reality, developing countries have already taken ambitious steps to address climate change, mostly without adequate finance, technology and capacity-building support, despite the fact that our countries are home to the vast majority of the world's people living in poverty. This commitment is demonstrated by the unprecedented fact that nearly all developing countries have submitted intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) that outline the ambitious action they intend to take in the post-2020 period. Many of these INDCs include a component on adaptation: action which we have to take as a result mostly of the historical emissions by developed countries. This was done without any concrete reassurances from our partners that post-2020 support will be available.

Mr. President,

6. The starting point for the G77 and China is that the mandate of our work is the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. This mandate requires us to promote the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention. We are not here in Paris to renegotiate, rewrite or reinterpret the Convention. Our objective is to strengthen the multilateral rules-based system under the Convention in accordance with its principles and provisions.

7. The Group of 77 and China reiterates that the agreement must be under the Convention, applicable to all Parties and based on its principles and provisions, in particular the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

8. The core elements mandated by the Durban mandate, namely mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer, capacity-building and transparency of action and support, as well as loss and damage and response measures must be addressed in a comprehensive and balanced manner, both in the agreement and in the COP decisions. Adaptation and mitigation must receive the same priority and must be supported by finance, technology development and transfer and capacity-building by developed country Parties on a scale that matches the level of action required to achieve the objective of the Convention as set out in Article 2 of the Convention. We therefore call on developed country Parties to take the lead through undertaking ambitious emission reduction commitments and providing enhanced finance, technology development and transfer and capacity-building support to developing country Parties for their ambitious mitigation and adaptation actions.

9. The Group of 77 and China regards the work on pre-2020 ambition as an integral part of the ADP that has direct bearing on the successful adoption of the 2015 agreement. Enhanced pre-2020 ambition will provide a strong basis for post-2020 cooperation.

10. The urgent entry into force of the Doha Amendment would be an important signal to the world that Parties are committed to closing the pre-2020 ambition gap. Scaling up climate finance towards the goal of US$100 billion by 2020 will also provide the resources required by developing countries to enhance pre-2020 mitigation and adaptation actions.

Mr. President,

11. Finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building are crucial and key elements of the Paris outcome. The outcome regarding finance must provide clarity on the level of financial support that will be provided by developed country Parties to developing country Parties to allow for enhanced implementation of the Convention in the post-2020 period, as well as existing commitment on pre-2020 finance. We require a substantial scaling up of finance from the 2020 base level of US$100 billion and Annex I country Parties and other developed countries included in Annex II have the principal responsibility in providing support, which must be new, additional, predictable and sustainable with an equal allocation between adaptation and mitigation.

12. Very important work on implementation is also undertaken under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, which should not be overshadowed by our focus on future commitments that will only take effect from 2020. We cannot lose the five years between now and 2020 by shifting our focus away from the urgent work that needs to progress in the subsidiary bodies to implement existing commitments.

Mr. President,

13. There can be no doubt that the Group of 77 and China are committed to play our part in addressing the global challenge of climate change. In order for the Group to turn this commitment into real actions, we have repeatedly called on developed countries to provide the necessary support to enable the members of the Group to take on their fair share of the global effort. This pre- and post2020 support is essential to enable developing countries to unlock their full mitigation potential and to allow them to adapt to climate change and its associated loss and damage.

Mr. President,

14. Ministers of the G77 and China are here in Paris ready to engage constructively to find solutions to the outstanding political issues to enable us to deliver a strong outcome.

I thank you.