EU, Latin America Agree to Work Toward Climate Talks Together

As the second major summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations (CELAC) and the European Union comes to a close, current CELAC President Rafael Correa announced that the two groups of countries agree to bridge the gap over the Atlantic.

Correa, who is also president of Ecuador, spoke during his closing remarks at the Brussels summit Thursday, stressing that central to this commitment will be strengthening cultural, economic and technological ties between the regions, as well as working together in the upcoming climate negotiations in Paris.

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President Correa emphasized that the international partnership is important for Latin American development: “The real key to development, to achieve the good life … at this stage of development in Latin America and the Caribbean - what we need is above all human talent, science and technology.”

One of the principal reasons for the summit was to discuss strengthening bilateral ties. Tackling climate change came high on the agenda, ahead of the United Nations summit on climate change in Paris in November.

“We all welcomed the proposal that in December, in Paris, we need to reach binding agreements, not declarative ones, with responsibilities, with sanctions, with contributions from each country to take care of the only planet we have and fight this pandemic, which is climate change,” said Correa.

The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, argued that the EU and CELAC regions represent one third of the world’s countries, and can therefore have a strong impact at climate negotiations.

We support process of modernisation in #Cuba; to be reinforced by our Political Dialogue & Cooperation Agreement. #EUCELAC

— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) June 11, 2015

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The call for more coordinated, international action on climate change was also discussed at the People's Forum, underway alongside the official EU-CELAC summit in Belgium.

“Climate change will never be tackled by advocacy, reports and briefings - the politicians know full well the earth is warming and heading for 3 or 4 degrees Celsius. We need a global powerful social movement to force change,” Asad Rehman from the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth told teleSUR.

The People's Forum also came to a close Thursday evening. Its two-day summit attracted some 800 participants ranging from nongovernmental organizations, social organizations and citizens concerned about the decisions of world leaders.