“Countries should not have to choose between poverty and protecting the planet”: Macron urges agreements

French President Emmanuel Macron laid the groundwork for the Paris climate summit. In front of an audience of heads of state and leaders of international organizations, the Élysée leader pointed out what he considers errors in the current forms of financing to combat climate change.

The objective of the event, which lasts for two days, is to establish the pillars of a new financial pact that allows the most vulnerable countries to meet their environmental commitments, while addressing poverty and protecting nature within their territories.

Attendees included Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, World Bank Chief Ajay Banga and International Monetary Fund (IMF) President ) Kristalina Georgieva.

“This Paris Summit belongs to all of you. That of all those who are on the front line facing the consequences of climate change and poverty. To overcome these immense challenges, we must collectively rise to the occasion,” Macron maintained in his keynote address.

“Reduce poverty or protect the planet: we shouldn’t have to choose”

And while the summit doesn’t really have a mandate to make formal decisions, its mission is to provide the political impetus for the more than 50 heads of state, world finance officials and activists to come to common ground on issues that will be discussed at upcoming conferences. high-level weather.

‘A financial shake-up’

The big financial institutions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been repeatedly criticized for the way they lend money to the most vulnerable nations.

Their critics point out that they do not take global warming into account in their lending decisions and that they are dominated by powers like the United States.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, was emphatic on this point and, although he praised the Special Drawing Rights initiative, he criticized how the funds were allocated, since 160,000 million dollars were allocated for the European Union, while for the African continent only 34,000 million dollars.

“These rules have become deeply immoral, in favor of the richest”

Countries are asking multilateral development banks to help unlock climate investments and significantly increase lending, while stressing that new debt agreements should include, as Barbados has done, disaster clauses that allow a nation to pause payments for two years after experiencing an extreme weather event.

Summit participants are also pushing the idea of ​​taxing fossil fuel earnings, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, produced by shipping. This last idea, with the aim that it can become a reality at the meeting of the International Maritime Organization that will take place next July.

“The international financial system is in crisis. A European citizen received on average almost 13 times more than an African citizen And while all of this was done according to the rules, let’s be real: these rules have become profoundly immoral, in favor of the richest,” Guterres remarked.

A wake-up call to nations with stronger economies

Precisely on these two issues, there was a long and uncomfortable silence in the room that brings together various producer countries of the world oil industry, such as the delegation of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.

Dressed in a black T-shirt emblazoned with “stop investment now”, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate took to the podium immediately after the French president’s inaugural address.

In her message, full of figures and examples of the consequences of climate change, Vanessa Nakate He urged delegates to put people first over profit, make polluters pay, cancel debt and direct climate finance to the most vulnerable territories that did not cause the climate crisis.

“People around the world who are already suffering, starving, being displaced, dropping out of school, being forced into child marriages, losing their cultures and history, those who are already helpless, hopeless and dying due to the devastating impact of the climate crisis. We should observe a minute of silence for all these people,” he stressed.

China, a major global creditor, has come under scrutiny for its lack of involvement in multilateral efforts to ease the debt burden of developing countries.

Last year, a group of UN experts suggested that developing and emerging economies, excluding China, would need to spend about $2.4 trillion a year on climate change and development policies to meet the environmental goals of 2030. A goal that for many is “impossible to achieve”, because not even the promises of previous events have materialized.

One such pledge was first agreed to in 2015, when the richest nations pledged $100 million in annual aid to help developing countries meet climate requirements.

And although the promise was reiterated at the Paris Climate Summit, but so far it has never been fulfilled, the French president stressed that his financial experts suggest that “it is very likely that it can be fulfilled this year.”

With AP and Reuters.