G77 + China: Petro Calls For A Decarbonized Economy

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday called for a transition to a decarbonized economy in the face of the climate crisis during his speech at the G77+China Summit in Havana, Cuba.

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Petro referred to the need for a Marshall plan to make investments for the transition to a decarbonized economy. This leads to debate in the G77 as it would trigger "an economy without coal, without oil, without fossils."

"A progressive idea of the world cannot be separated from a scientific vision," said the president. Science, technology, and innovation are vital for humanity, especially in a G77 that has many developing nations, Petro said. 

He reiterated that the most important of the real changes currently pressing the world is climate change, which affects the world's poor the most. In this regard, the Colombian president warned that "islands will be the first to be wiped off the planet with their populations or through exodus."

He said that 3,000 million will be displaced from their homes. We will be facing a harsh world: our fertile lands will dry up. He stressed that there will be a lack of democracy and harsh conditions will prevail around the world.

He stressed to participants that science must be followed to find solutions. "Technology must lead us to a carbon- and oil-free economy," he said, noting that the G 77 + China must address, negotiate, establish, and accept a carbon-free economy. 

He wondered if this economy would allow for better international relations than the current ones.

He pointed out that capitalism has negative effects on nature and human beings, a theory known since the 19th century. Likewise, he referred to international development funds and said that they should be increased. 

Petro expressed that there are only two methods to finance this decarbonized economy: capital or public funds. "If we do not take the path of reducing debt, the only way to finance the decarbonized economy is capital and indebtedness."

On the debt reduction, he said that since COVID-19, "we have all learned that debt must be canceled, not forgiven so that we can start a new financing system towards a carbon-free economy, as we proposed in Latin America and Africa."

On the Russia-Ukraine war, he stressed that the G 77 countries "don't have to be with one side against the other." He also wondered why the Israeli-Palestinian war was not treated on the same level and said there was a lot of double standards there.

"We should compare two situations explicitly in today's world debate. What is the difference between the war of Russia and Ukraine with that of Israel and Palestine? And why this double standard to assume a great front of human unity in the war of Russia and Ukraine against Russia and not to take sides and sabotage the possibility of a great human front in the occupation of Israel in the Palestinian territory if it is the same thing? Wouldn't it be the time for the G7 to propose to the United Nations and the powers of the world that the time has come to hold two immediate peace conferences for the good of humanity and to open the spaces for discussion in which the world must enter", he concluded.