PARIS (AP) – Before an audience full of suited world leaders and tax officials, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate silenced the room and then shared some uncomfortable facts with everyone.
The UNICEF ambassador and activist was in a somber mood and requested a minute’s silence as he addressed a two-day summit aimed at finding better solutions to fighting poverty and climate change by transforming the global financial system.
Nakate wore a black T-shirt with the slogan “Divest Now” and said the silence was for “people around the world who are already suffering, starving, being displaced, dropping out of school, being forced into child marriage and losing their culture.” .” and history, those who are already helpless, hopeless and dying from the devastating effects of the climate crisis.”
Immediately after the summit, Nakate, host of French President Emmanuel Macron, urged delegates to put people first, not profit, hold polluters accountable, cancel debt and direct climate finance to the most vulnerable Judging countries that did not cause the climate crisis, while ensuring that the climate crisis is at risk. Fossil fuels are not part of their development.
“You need to think in trillions, not billions,” she said, underscoring her speech with depressing statistics about pollution and the growing global inequality between the rich and the have-not.
The summit brings together more than 50 heads of state, world finance officials and activists. They will discuss ways to reform the global financial system and tackle the debt, climate change and poverty crises.
In his speech, Macron called for massive investments for developing countries and said that no country should choose between “poverty reduction or protecting the planet”. He stressed the need for further investment from both the public and private sectors and the crucial role of international institutions.
Concrete steps taken by Senegal on Thursday included a deal with the European Union and western allies including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada to support the country’s efforts to improve its access to energy and its To increase the share of renewable energy to 40% by 2030 The deal will mobilize 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion).
“Diversifying our energy sources and our supply chains will increase our resilience,” said Senegal’s President Macky Sall.
The Paris talks come as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a global debt crisis have led to falling life expectancy and rising poverty in most countries around the world, the United Nations Development Program reported.
Developing countries point to an outdated system in which the United States, Europe, China and other major economies that have caused the most climate damage burden the poorest countries with the consequences.
Among the key issues to be discussed in Paris are changes in the way the World Bank and International Monetary Fund lend and lend to the most vulnerable countries. Both institutions have been criticized for not factoring climate change into their lending decisions and for being dominated by wealthy countries like the US
Macron praised the International Monetary Fund’s initiative to provide more funds to low-income countries through special drawing rights. This is an international reserve balance held by the IMF that can be exchanged for hard currency.
“The international financial system is in crisis,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He praised the Special Drawing Rights initiative but criticized the way the funds were allocated: the European Union got $160 billion, while Africa got $34 billion.
“A European citizen received, on average, almost 13 times more than an African citizen. All of this happened according to the rules. But let’s be honest: these rules have become deeply immoral,” he said.
The Paris summit follows a plan by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley to give climate-vulnerable countries easier access to finance. Mottley and other advocates have argued that developing countries are forced to pay interest rates so high that they struggle to fund adaptation projects like levees, or green energy initiatives like large solar farms, or simply make payments on outstanding loans when impacted by climate disasters happen.
“What is being asked of us now is an absolute transformation — not reform — of our institutions,” Mottley said.
“I hope we leave Paris not only with the assurance that we are committed to protecting the planet, biodiversity and people, but also with the realization that if we don’t do it today, we won’t be able to.” act on a large scale and at a pace to get there in time to save more people,” Mottley said.
The Paris summit has no mandate to make formal decisions, French organizers stressed, but it aims to provide strong political impetus for key issues to be discussed at upcoming climate conferences and other international gatherings.
Climate activists and developing countries also urged rich countries to live up to their existing commitments.
Macron tweeted Thursday that experts said the pledge to provide $100 billion in aid to poor countries each year to deal with global change is “very likely to be met this year!” First made in 2009 and on The promise reaffirmed at the Paris climate summit in 2015 was never kept.
Summit participants could support a tax on greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, with a view to adopting it at a July meeting of the International Maritime Organization.
To bring in more money, activists are pushing for a tax on the fossil fuel industry and another on financial transactions — two proposals that seem to have little support in wealthier countries.
Debt restructuring and debt relief are also up for debate as more and more countries struggle with unsustainable debt, exacerbated by climate change. Participants should discuss a debt suspension clause for countries affected by extreme climate events.
The summit was attended by many officials from poor and climate-prone countries, but only two members of the group of seven most developed countries – Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – were in the audience. The US was represented by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Climate Commissioner John Kerry.
Attendees included China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, World Bank President Ajay Banga and IMF President Kristalina Georgieva.
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