Colombian President Gustavo Petro this Friday advocated for transformations that make it possible to face threats like climate change and drugs when he spoke at the Paris Peace Forum.
Speaking at the fifth edition of the meeting, he warned that the transition to a decarbonized economy urgently requires change beyond technology.
It has to do with profound social and political changes, the president said, alluding to the response to the existential threat posed by climate change.
According to Petro, humanity needs to move away from a concept of wealth based on the accumulation of things to one that responds to the intensity of existence.
We live in times of struggle between humanity and greed and a deadly power encoded around the infinite and permanent accumulation of things, he stressed.
On drugs, the President called for a change in policy and the resources invested in the war on the Scourge to be directed toward drug use prevention.
In this sense, he described the war on drugs as a failure due to the continuing violence and the high number of deaths, users and incarcerated people.