"Spain will be at the forefront of a just ecological transition that leaves no-one behind", says Pedro Sánchez

Headquarters of the United Nations, New York (United States)

Spain has been one of the most active countries at the Summit, co-leading with Peru one of the new thematic areas of the meeting, relating to political and social aspects of climate change, including the just transition, health and gender.

At the afternoon's session, given over to climate action focused on people, Pedro Sánchez reasserted Spain's firm commitment to tackle the climate emergency and presented the joint work carried out by the Governments of Spain and Peru to achieve the ecological transition of the economy in a socially just and supportive fashion. Both countries have worked hard over recent months to ensure the highest number of countries sign up to the initiatives and goals set by the Spanish-Peruvian projects.

Among the specific measures presented, the Acting President of the Government announced that Spain will contribute 150 million euros to the Green Climate Fund over the next four years, a fund set up to help developing countries in practices to adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects. Pedro Sánchez also announced that Spain will ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, and will contribute 2 million euros to the Adaptation Fund within the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la BellacasaPedro Sánchez also underlined the importance of harnessing affinities with the private sector to tackle the climate challenge, as well as boosting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls to ensure their presence and leadership at the heart of climate action.

The Acting President of the Government also took part in the Dialogue of leaders to respond to the narrative of terrorism and violent extremism, at which he reasserted Spain's commitment to the Christchurch Action, an initiative promoted by New Zealand and France following the attacks on a mosque in Christchurch, which seeks to ensure a safe, trustworthy cyber-security environment based on the law.

In order to combat the spread of hate content on the Internet and avoid radicalisation processes, the Acting President of the Government called for the development of protocols that allow better access to content and avoid terrorists employing encrypted messaging services.

The Acting President of the Government presented the Spanish Strategic Plan to fight violent radicalisation, with early warning tools such as "Stop radicalism", based on citizen collaboration, and announced Spain's commitment to head up the Second High-Level UN Conference on Counter-terrorism in 2020, which will focus on the victims.

The day concluded with a meeting between the Acting President of the Government and Spanish residents in New York. Pedro Sánchez highlighted their vital role in projecting Spain's image overseas. "Your reputation at an international level is a source of pride for our country, we need you to talk more and better about Spain in the world", he said.

Meetings with Secretary-General and President of General Assembly of United Nations

On the side-lines of the Summit, Acting President of the Government Sánchez held a meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, who praised Spain's commitment to the UN and to multilateralism, essentially on such issues as climate change and gender equality.

Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la BellacasaFor his part, Pedro Sánchez underlined Spain's interest in actively participating in the 75th anniversary of the UN and recalled that the exiled Spanish Republican Parliament in Mexico sent a delegation of Spanish exiles to the founding meeting of the United Nations.

Pedro Sánchez also met with the President of the General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who he spoke with about the priorities of his mandate at the head of the Assembly and Spain's commitment to Africa.

Non official translation