KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he will be focusing on financing for climate change adaptation and reform of international financial institutions during the one-day eighth summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) here later on Friday.
Guterres, who is slated to address the conference, told a joint press conference with St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, flagged several regional, hemispheric, and global issues expressing “a deep solidarity” to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Many of the economies of the continent are in deep trouble. When the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the world, the truth is that developed countries like mine in the European Union could print money in large quantities to support their people and the economy,” said Guterres, a Portuguese national.
He said that most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean “could not print money because if they had to print money, their currencies would suffer enormously.”
Therefore, these countries had to borrow “to solve the problems of their people and their economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“And we see now, so many economies in this continent drowning in debt, and we see that an unfair, ineffective, and outdated international financial architecture has proven unable to support these countries in this moment of distress.”
Guterres said that prices and interest rates went up to make things worse with the war in Ukraine and with other impacts.
“The impact on the economies has been terrible. However, many of the region’s economies are middle-income countries, and middle-income countries have no access to concessional funding or effective debt relief.
“It’s time for a reform of our international financial institutions. It’s time for a new Bretton Woods movement in which developing countries can see an international financial system able to address their enormous challenges.”
Representatives of 44 nations reached the Bretton Woods Agreement at a 1944 summit in the United States. It created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and required a currency peg to the United States dollar, which was, in turn, pegged to the price of gold.
Guterres also had words of solidarity with Small Island Developing States (SIDS), noting that they are on the frontlines of the fight against climate change.
“They are the ones that suffer more with the impacts of climate change. They have not contributed to climate change, but even not having contributed to climate change, they are also on the frontline of adopting the measures of mitigation to reduce emissions that are, of course, very limited from the beginning, but to show their solidarity with the world,” he said.
The United Nations Secretary-General said it was “essential” to have a much bigger ambition about reducing emissions, adding that this is “essentially a responsibility” of the G 20 countries representing 80 percent of the emissions.
“But we need much more climate justice, which means much more finance available at a reasonable cost for adaptation and mitigation for developing countries and, in particular, for small island developing states.”
He said the summit “is the moment” to recognize that countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that have been victims of an unfair international financial system, and that many of them, in particular, are victims of runaway climate change, have the right to claim for the reforms that are necessary to create the conditions for their governments to be able to act, providing their peoples with response to the needs that need to be addressed.
“Because it is unacceptable for lack of investment in education or housing or infrastructure that is paying the price of an unfair international financial system in a moment of global multiplication of wars and conflicts that represents a threat to international peace and security.”
Regarding climate justice, Guterres noted that the loss and damage fund has not been capitalized, adding, “We need much more than what was promised.”
He also said there is a need for clarification on how the adaptation funding will double and the commitments that should emerge of making 50 percent in international financing on climate for adaptation.
“We need to clarify once and for all how the US$100 billion that developed countries have promised per year are implemented,” Guterres said.
“And we need to do the reforms in the way international financial institutions work,” he said, adding that they need to increase their capital level and “change their business model to be able to mobilize much more resources and to attract private capital at a reasonable cost for support of developing countries in climate action.”
CELAC was founded in 2011 and held its first summit with the European Union for eight years after Kingstown took over the pro-Tempore presidency. The summit should have been held every two years.
Gonsalves said CELAC is an integration mechanism in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a population of 650 million.
He noted that its members include Brazil and other G20 economies, such as Mexico and Argentina, and countries with “tremendous influence in the global system,” such as Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile, as well as “the exemplar of Cuba.
“And this particular bloc of countries has grown in influence worldwide. And certainly, CARICOM, as part of this large bloc of countries, exercise influence within that block, and through that bloc across the multilateral system,” Gonsalves said.
He said the details and extent of the functional cooperation and advocacy in CELAC would be embodied in the outcome document, the Declaration of Kingstown, slated to be adapted during the summit, and the speeches of the 33 states.
The summit will also be attended by “special guests” from other countries such as India, China, and the European Union.
Asked about the importance of CELAC amidst several overlapping integration blocs in the hemisphere, Guterres said he has always been “a supporter of integration — economic integration, political integration — as a critical instrument for regions to be able to allow their countries to cooperate more strongly and cooperating more strongly to be able to defend the interests of their peoples better.
“So, I believe that CELAC is an essential tool to push for progressive economic and political integration in the Latin American and Caribbean world,” he told reporters.
and then 