Havana, Cuba, September 15 , 2023.
President Gustavo Petro reiterates to G77 + China countries to make the transition towards a decarbonized economy and strengthen public funds
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SKNOyEs-j1I
President Gustavo Petro proposed to the 144 countries that make up the G77+China, promote the energy transition to confront climate change that threatens the existence of the planet.
Before the 144 countries of the G77+China, the president explained that Covid demonstrated in a small way how this transition model could operate.
He proposed asking the UN to address two central issues: war and peace (Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine), and the climate crisis to save the planet.
At the G77+China meeting, President Gustavo Petro defended his proposal for a “universal negotiation for the change of a new global financial system.”
See: Climate agenda, global cooperation and financing, Colombia issues at the G77+China Summit
Petro, who reiterated his thesis raised in different international scenarios, considered that this negotiation of special drawing rights should not be done country by country but on a universal scale.
To reduce debt and finance the decarbonized economy there are two alternatives: capital and debt, he said.
“Covid showed in a small way that the universal issuance of special drawing rights can be increased progressively based on humanity's poverty levels, paying the debt, not condoning it; but paying the debt to the creditors so that the debt of each country decreases and budgetary spaces are opened throughout the world. That is to say – he explained – public funds that allow us to finance the transition to a decarbonized economy.”
Regarding the first option to solve the climate crisis, the Colombian president assured that capital “only finances projects that generate profit, profitability and greed,” which is why he added that there is another space, which is the public funds of the world, which can be increased. also in two ways:
One, as proposed by the United States and Europe: “getting into more debt.” And he noted, “many members of the G77 passively accept this path.”
"That is, in order to solve problems that were caused in a huge chimney and continue to be caused in the United States, in China and in the European Union, we must, in order to save our lives, get into even more debt than the current levels.”
President Petro warned that this path “is not possible,” therefore, the most viable thing is to increase public funds and reduce debt.
“This proposal approved in South America, in Africa, in previous meetings such as the one in Paris, in my opinion should be taken up by the G77, because we do not lose there, we win, because in the end, when we are talking about public funds, we are saying, first, that the public is once again the center of the transformation of the world, and it is a paradigm shift,” explained the Colombian head of state.
However, he admitted that to make this type of transition investment to a decarbonized economy, a Marshall Plan is required “which must be planned on a multilateral and global scale in order to save the life of the planet.”
See: President Petro proposes in Paris a global Marshall Plan to confront the climate crisis
Living space is exhausted
In his presentation, the president assured that "today science tells us that the main problem of this humanity is called the climate crisis, which will mainly affect the poor nations of the world, among them many of the G77 that science calls the poor of the world, the outcasts of the earth.”
Even more. He considered that many islands (countries of this multilateral group) will sink because "this scientific model indicates that between now and 2070 in this vital space, most of the countries that we inhabit in the torrid zone of the world, like mine, will be uninhabitable."
And then, he pointed out, an exodus will take place that will reach 3,000 million people, according to these scientific models. “A world like this is inconceivable from a political point of view, it would be a very violent world. If it already is when the flow is barely 10, 80 million migrants, what will it be like when there are 3,000 million?
What will the world be like when the lands of the great cities of our countries are uninhabitable? What will the politics be like? What will society be like? Will there be democracy or will there be barbarism? ”he questioned.
Between war and peace
At the end of his speech, President Petro asked the G77+China to address the issue of war and peace, “not because we have to take sides between Russia or Ukraine, but rather we should compare two situations explicitly in today's global debate.” .
In that sense, he asked: “What is the difference between the war in Russia and Ukraine and that of Israel and Palestine?”, which is why he suggested the G7 (United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada) propose to the United Nations to hold two peace conferences immediately for the good of humanity: “The climate crisis, which is a peace conference on the war in Ukraine” and a peace conference at the same time on the Israeli occupation of Palestine ”, he stressed.
“What is the difference between the war between Russia and Ukraine and that between Israel and Palestine? And why this double standard to assume a great front of human unity in the war of Russia and Ukraine against Russia, and not take sides and sabotage the possibility of a great human front in Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territory, if it is the same?”, concluded the president.
Source : ShieldSquare Block