With a defense of multilateralism and a call to reduce the asymmetries between the North and the South concluded this Saturday in Havana summit of the G77+China countries. The meeting began on Friday with the presence of representatives from 100 countries, including government and state authorities, foreign ministers and delegates from international organizations.
The objective of the summit, on this occasion, has been to establish a common position regarding issues in which the gap between developed and developing countries is most starkly revealed: technology, the role of science and innovation. But the way in which they relate to the environmental challenges.
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silvaconsidered that the demands of the G77 must be reinforced “in light of the fourth industrial revolution”, which revolves around advances in the fields of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. “We cannot be divided. “We must forge a common vision that takes into account the concerns of low- and middle-income countries and other more vulnerable groups.”
Lula urged the forum that brings together two thirds of the countries that make up the United Nations to take joint action so that the energy transition and the digital revolution are not led by “a handful of rich economies. That would be, in his opinion, shared by several exhibitors, such as the South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandormaintain the “relationship of dependency between the center and the periphery.”
When opening the summit in Cuba, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, had called for creating a more just order and even considered that they were “failing” to developing nations.
The Brazilian president returned to that criterion, articulating it with the new global challenges. He remarked in this regard that The “climate emergency imposes new imperatives on us” but at the same time it offers opportunities. “We are going to promote sustainable industrialization, investing in renewable energies, in the socio-bio-economy and in low-carbon agriculture,” she assured. This task, she stressed, must be carried out “without forgetting that We do not have the same historical debt as rich countries with global warming”.
In that sense, Lula repeated an idea that several European leaders already heard from their own mouths in Brussels, during the meeting between the EU and the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), in mid-July: “Climate financing must be guaranteed to all developing countries, depending on their needs and priorities. For Lula, the most powerful nations must fulfill their commitments between the UN Climate Change Summit (COP) to be held in Dubai in five years and the COP-30 in Belém.
Since the beginning of his third government, at the beginning of the year, Lula has tried to regain the international leadership he had between 2003 and 2010. A group like the 77 – created in 1964 with that many countries, which currently reach 134 and with China as an external actor – offers it a platform in line with its aspirations. “Global governance remains asymmetrical. “The UN, the Bretton Woods system and the WTO are losing credibility”. With that same emphasis he demanded the end of the United States economic sanctions against Cuba.
A global Marshall Plan
The Colombian Gustavo Petro He was even bolder in asking the developed world to promote a kind of global Marshall Plan to confront the climate crisis, alluding to the program that the United States financed to help Europe after World War II. If we do not act accordingly, the world would become “very violent” and the exodus of people affected by environmental catastrophes could reach 3 billion.
“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 asked. Petro also defended a “universal negotiation for the change of a new global financial system.” Both aspects are intertwined.
According to Petro, the United States and Europe only propose that developing countries get into more debt and “many members of the G77 passively accept this path.” And he added: “If we do not address the path of reducing the debt, The only way to finance the decarbonized economy worldwide is equity and debt. That is, a reproduction and deepening of the relations of world domination.”
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The Colombian president proposed in exchange a Universal Issuance of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) so that indebted countries can alleviate their burdens. “This proposal, approved in South America, in Africa, in certain 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.”
José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), conveyed the same ideas. “Humanity faces the challenge of climate change: it is in our hands to take action, seize opportunities and maximize the benefits of Emerging technologies to build the resilience of our countries and economy and reduce negative impacts.”