UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Belize Saturday lamented the lack of trust among developed countries, noting that trust and solidarity are in diminishing supply at a time when the capacity of planet Earth to sustain human life is in grave peril.
Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, and Immigration Minister Eamon Courtenay said the trust of developing countries that the developed countries would keep to their promises for several issues ranging from climate change to a reform of the international financial architecture was all but an illusion.
He said targets set as far back as 1970 have never been met, and by at least one estimate, this failure has resulted in US$6.5 trillion in undelivered aid to developing countries.
Courtenay recalled that at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 15), developed countries committed to mobilize US$100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action. “That commitment has yet to be met. Consequently, US$381.6 billion in public climate finance has been foregone,” he said, noting also the commitment made in 2015 in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda to phase out fossil fuel subsidies has been wholly ignored.
The Belizean foreign minister told the 78th United Nations General Assembly session that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has since noted that fossil fuel subsidies had risen seven trillion US dollars last year.
“Despite their strident calls for respecting human rights, the Global North remains outside the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers; deaths and inhumane treatment of migrants at the southern borders of the Western world continue with impunity.”
Courtenay said another form of mistrust came in the hoarding of COVID-19 vaccines by developed countries and their continuing refusal to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, causing prolonged suffering in the developing world, with some countries still below global vaccine targets.
“Mistrust is widespread. Solemn promises are routinely broken. Narrow nationalism and insularity have displaced global solidarity,” he said, adding, “The situation is critical.”
The Foreign Minister also said that only 12 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on track for achievement, adding that for the first time, the Human Development Index declined globally for two years in a row, placing more significant burdens on the most vulnerable. “Poverty and food insecurity are rising. Hunger is at levels not seen since 2005, a significant regression. High inflation has returned.
“The global average temperatures for the last three months were the highest on record. Yet G-20 countries, which are responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, are failing in their duty to curb their emissions drastically. 1.5 alive is slipping from our grasp.”
He said the development financing gap is widening, putting development out of reach for low-income and vulnerable countries.
“Our governments face a callous choice between Scylla and Charybdis, expensive debt payments, or acquiring even more costly debt to invest in development and resilience.
“More than half of the world’s top 50 climate-vulnerable countries are home to 40% of people living in extreme poverty. But as they represent only 2.5 percent of the global economy, their debt distress falls through the global financial cracks.
”Paradoxically, accompanying the progressive erosion of trust and solidarity is the inclination to dig in further, to deny the science, to dismiss the perspective of others, to retreat into like-minded spaces and to stoke more division,” he said, adding that the areas for dialogue and cooperation are closing and that polarisation and fragmentation are trending.
But Courtenay told the UNGA that Belize is proposing three broad actions that are urgent and necessary to restore trust and foster solidarity.
He said urgent reform of the international financial architecture is imperative.
“The objectives and policies of international financial institutions must be better aligned with our climate and development goals. The eligibility criteria, which currently exclude some vulnerable countries from access to development finance, must be reformed to take account of vulnerabilities.”
The Foreign Minister said that the governance of international financial institutions (IFIs) must be broadened to include the voices of developing countries, saying, “Decisions for us cannot be made without us.”
He said the upcoming annual meetings in Marrakech, the realization of the MDB vision emanating from the Paris Summit, the Bridgetown Initiative, and the prototype multidimensional vulnerability index are all fundamental reforms that would reinvigorate genuine trust in the international financial system and the world must seize the day.
He said events of the last decade have shown how ineffective the UN Security Council is and the dangerous vacuum that arises from that place.
“Threats to international peace and security demand an effective Council, inclusive with equitable representation that reflects today’s global dynamics. The inability of the Council to act in the face of the illegal Russian War against Ukraine exemplifies the Council’s impotence. Reform of the Council is urgent, and Belize calls for the commencement of text-based negotiations in this session.”
He said the second proposal from Belize calls for the developed countries to meet the commitments made to small island developing states (SIDS).
“Unmet commitments, insufficient to meet growing needs, have contributed to the enormous financing gap we face today, the stalling of the climate and development agendas, and the deepening of current crises.
“By course correcting immediately, we can restore the trust and solidarity and get us on track to achieving the Paris goals and the SDGs. We are all on the road to climate perdition.”
He said the Global Stocktake, to be concluded at COP28 in Dubai in November, is an unmissable opportunity to agree on solutions to address the problematic gaps in implementation, accelerate climate action, and ramp up ambition.
Courtenay said that the just concluded SDG Summit revealed the dire reality, adding that the refusal of developed countries to raise the ambition on the means of implementation is disappointing.
“This must change. The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development is an important opportunity to forge a new financing pact for sustainable development.”
Courtenay said trust and solidarity can only thrive where there is justice and that the terrible injustice and the poisoned legacy of native genocide, slavery, and the trans-Atlantic slave trade cannot continue to be ignored or to be the subject only of academic discussions. “Descendants of enslaved people struggle with persistent racial discrimination, marginalization, and generational trauma. The consequences of slavery for our countries manifest today through underdevelopment, poverty, and structural inequities,” he said.
He said the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has put forward a 10-point plan that addresses the core of reparatory justice as the regional countries see it.
“Reparatory justice is essential to any redemption from a historical wrong so memorable that it can never be fully remedied but must be reckoned with. To the governments of European countries that enabled this evil, we say the time for redemption, reparation, and respect is here, and we demand it,” he said.
Belize said that the decades-long call for climate justice must be answered and that SIDS is reaching the limits of adaptive capacity and already incurring loss and damage and will continue to do so.
“Yet those whose economic prosperity and wealth have been based on climate-destroying activities are attempting to evade their historic responsibilities by lowering ambition on climate action, backsliding on implementing their obligations, and refusing to deliver on climate finance.
“This blatant injustice is compounded by the reality that to invest in resilience, to respond and recover from climate-induced disasters, we must borrow from the same wealthy countries.”
He said developed countries must urgently double adaptation financing and better align that financing to our growing needs. They must close the emissions and implementation gaps to keep 1.5 within reach.
“The Loss and Damage Fund must be operationalized and capitalized at COP 28. We need adequate resources for transitions to sustain our low carbon economies and to further decouple our energy, transport, and electrical systems from high-polluting activities,” Courtenay added.
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