By Mathew Carr
June 23-24, 2023 — Climate talks are becoming a “joke” without reform of multilateral financial architecture: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, said at the Paris summit for a new global financial pact.
There needs to be more sincerity in caring for less wealthy all the time. It’s not right that the rich keep getting richer, Lula said.
“The World Bank is not meeting the world’s expectations. And we need to say this very clearly. The IMF as well is not meeting the world’s expectations.”
World leaders were meeting in Paris to draw up a new financial pact to ensure that countries save the climate, nature and meet sustainable development goals. It was good to see them listening to each others’ criticisms.
Failing
“Governments are failing. This is what we are seeing in Argentina. IMF very irresponsibly made Argentina a huge loan. And we don’t know what the Argentina president did with that money. Today Argentina is in a very difficult economic situation because it doesn’t have enough dollars to pay the IMF back,” Lula said.
(For balance on Argentina and the IMF, read this.)
We cannot go on working in “this incorrect way,” Lula said via an interpreter. The same thing goes for the UN Security Council, he said.
IMF Plan For Climate Here
“The UN needs to change. It needs to become more representative,” Lula said.
The UN created Israel but can’t seem to stop Israel from improperly occupying the state of Palestine, he said.
“If we don’t change these institutions, climate issues will just be a joke really. Who is going to respect the decisions made by the fora that we organize?”
He then listed a series of meeting outcomes that he indicated had been disrespected:
- Kyoto Protocol
- COP10 Copenhagen
- Paris agreement
“We cannot respect those commitments because there is no strong world governance. So we need to say very clearly that if we don’t change our institutions, the world will remain the same. And the rich will go on being rich. The poor will go on being poor. That’s what happens. And I’m saying this with great sorrow.”
“The world political class only gives value to poor people at election time. After elections they are forgotten — left to fend for themselves.”
Threatening
Lula said the EU was threatening Brazil over its trade rules related to Amazon deforestation. “How do you expect us to sign an agreement in these circumstances? If I could I would take (German leader Olaf Scholz) and make him minister of mines and industry in my country so we could transform our situation so that all of the ore in my country could be processed in my country.”
Lula said global trade should rely less on the USD and that shift should be on the agenda at the BRICS meeting and at the G20.
“These fora cannot be a club for the happy few, for the political elite.”
Lula said South America needs to mimic the EU and form a bloc. He said the region was behind even the Africa Union in doing so.
A switch away from the USD will be on the agenda of the next BRICS meeting, said South Africa’s leader Cyril Ramaphosa.
Missing $100 billion / year
“The $100 billion has never been made available”: Ramaphosa on the money promised per year to developing countries for climate action.
A UN envoy familiar with the situation told CarrZee last week at climate talks in Bonn that the $100 billion would probably finally flow from rich to poorer nations this year for climate assistance (though it is not a sure thing). This was promised in 2009 for 2020 and still has not been delivered.
“Let us now put money on the table,” Ramaphosa said. “We need capital at scale.”
Twelve – fifteen countries could get electricity from a new series of dams in Africa (The Inga dams project) on the mighty Congo river, for instance, he said. It could end up being 70 GW of power generation capacity.
We should be able to say the Inga dam project is now going to be developed, he said. That would be a clear outcome of this Paris summit, he said.
“Let’s get that done then we will be convinced you are serious with the promises that you make.”
Source: Wikipedia snip
There could also be a new railway from Cape Town to Cairo, Ramaphosa said.
The Ramaphosa administration has been hit by allegations of corruption. Ramaphosa earlier this month travelled to Europe with other leaders in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine and ease grain supplies.
MDB reforms
Board members of multilateral development institutions need to include independent directors, indicating there was institutional bias against emerging nations, he said Friday.
Special drawing rights rules need to be reformed. The current situation: “Either you get zero or $34 billion,” Ramaphosa said. “In our view this is not a zero sum game.”
African countries still believe they are treated as second class citizens in international talks, he said.
“It would help that we participate fully, so that we don’t have a sense that we are beggars — that we are being dealt with as if out of generosity.”
(On Saturday, added context and balance, earlier corrected spelling of Copenhagen, tweaked typos)
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