On that day, the Colombian President also met with the President of the Inter-American Development Bank, Ilan Goldfajn; and with Kenya’s Head of State, Ewilliam Ruto.
Petro brings to this Macron-convened summit a comprehensive agenda that includes mechanisms to protect the Amazon rainforest, the development of clean energy, and Colombia’s proposal to swap external debt for climate protection.
On this subject, the President proposed in a session this morning to develop a global Marshall Plan to deal with the climate crisis.
He suggested that a large global issue of special drawing rights be carried out via the International Monetary Fund and fed into a climate fund in order to free up budgetary leeway in the countries and thus mitigate the climate crisis or adapt to it.
“It would effectively be funding a Marshall Plan against the climate crisis. It would be a great step for humanity to be the first to overcome this problem, which is possibly the big problem that our extinction could bring,” he stressed.
According to the Colombian head of state, these Special Drawing Rights would “stop the holders of the debt – which are now the pension funds of the richest countries – and free up budgetary space in every country on earth to devote exclusively to harm reduction or mitigation.” Repairing the climate crisis.
The summit, which will take place from today until tomorrow, will take place in the Brongniart Palace in this capital and will be attended by more than a hundred world leaders.
With six round tables, 30 featured events and more than 50 parallel events, this financial summit is shaping up to be one of the most important international events of 2023 on an economic, social and environmental level.
The aim of the meeting is to lay the foundations for a new international financial pact that will particularly help the most vulnerable countries in the face of the climate crisis.
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