Cerebrating　the launch of Talanoa Japan, Mr. Michal Kurtyka,COP 24 President-designate, shared the following message of support and encouragement with Ms. Naomi Tokashiki, State Minister of the Environment, Japan:

"COP 24 in Katowice has been tasked to finalise negotiations and adopt the package of decisions implementing Paris Agreement. Another very important deliverable for C0P24 is the Talanoa Dialogue. Thanks to the Fijian COP 23 Presidency, countries embraced the spirit of Talanoa and decided that what has been mandated as facilitative dialogue, will be prepared and conducted following the rules of Talanoa. It means that all will gather together and share stories in a participatory dialogue. The voice of each Talanoa participant is equally important and we hope that they all will be inspired by stories of actions and solutions told by various actors from local communities, entrepreneurs, civil society and governments.

The Talanoa Dialogue stories aim at answering three basic questions: Where are we? Where do we want to go? How to get there? All answers to these questions have a value and should inspire us to protect climate and address the impacts of climate change.
Every country, every region has its own history. Thanks to the Dialogue in the spirit of Talanoa we can get to know our respective expectations, our needs and our constraints even better. Keeping in mind that people and their wellbeing shall be in the centre of responsible climate policy we can jointly define climate challenges facing the world and give answers - different and adapted to specific circumstances - for joint efforts in building our common future.
Worldwide climate policy, like no other, shows that it is possible to cross divisions for cooperation and common goals despite the existing differences, internal conditions and potentials. For my part, I would like to assure you that the Polish Presidency will make every effort to ensure that the spirit of the Paris Agreement and the message of the Talanoa Dialogue accompany our work in Katowice. I will spare no efforts for C0P24 to conclude with a consensus satisfying all Parties and, at the same time, ensuring implementation of the goals that we jointly established in Paris in 2015.
From my point of view it is absolutely necessary to involve non-governmental actors: international financial institutions, public and private enterprises, local and regional authorities and civil society organizations. The participation of different stakeholders from various backgrounds and governance levels enables joint consideration which solutions can be applied in different geographical and social circumstances, or on different managerial scales. Therefore I am pleased that Japan is undertaking its own activities in the spirit of Talanoa, I congratulate you on the launch of the Talanoa Japan initiative, which is to encourage contributions to the global Talanoa discussions.
Last May in Bonn we started the Talanoa Dialog with a great success and I am convinced that upcoming ministerial discussions in Katowice will result in a new way of thinking about climate challenges and options to overcome difficulties together."