The Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, presents Thursday in Paris at the summit on a “new global financial pact” on June 22, 2023 (AFP / Joël SAGET)
More public but also private money, as a priority for the countries of the South in the face of climate challenges: Thursday in Paris, Zambia obtained from its creditors, including China, a restructuring of part of its debt, and the Senegal a promise of aid to decarbonize its economy.
French President Emmanuel Macron, organizer of the “Summit for a new financial pact” which will end on Friday, received Thursday evening at the Elysée a large part of the heads of state and government, and personalities of international finance present at the Summit .
During the day he had called for a “shock of public funding” in the face of the climate crisis and poverty which are undermining the development of southern countries.
The goal: to release the billions of dollars essential for the energy transition and the adaptation of countries vulnerable to global warming, while changing the international financial structures born in the aftermath of the Second World War.
– “let the magic happen” –
The entourage of the French president confided in the evening to hope “that the magic works” to reach a “real deal”, in particular between the public and the private sector in order to generate financing margins.
French President Emmanuel Macron receives Senegalese President Macky Sall for an official dinner at the Elysee Palace as part of the summit “for a new global financial pact” in Paris, June 22, 2023 (AFP / Ludovic MARIN)
Magic, there was no Thursday, but small steps certainly. Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of the young republic of Barbados, thus received many applause after demanding an “absolute transformation” of the financial system, and not just “reform”. Barbados, a Caribbean island, is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change.
In the aftermath, Zambia’s creditor countries, including China, finally agreed to restructure part of its debt. A group of rich countries and development banks have also pledged to mobilize 2.5 billion euros to help Senegal reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, wanted to show that things had changed, announcing that the reallocation to poor countries has reached 100 billion dollars of special drawing rights (SDR), a kind of currency IMF reserve.
“It is the future of humanity that is being discussed here,” said Ms. Georgieva.
The works at the Palais Brongniart, in the center of Paris, should not lead to concrete decisions but benefit from the weight of the floor of the guests. Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi or IMF Managing Director Kristaline Georgieva were present at the Elysée dinner on Thursday evening.
Brazilian President Lula, seeking a European trade agreement with Mercosur, emphasized “the responsibility of rich countries to finance developing countries, which have forest reserves”.
“Everyone is watching passively waiting for something to happen,” young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said Thursday during a talk in Paris.
– “historic debt” –
“It is not the African people who polluted the world, nor the Latin American people who pollute the world”, launched the Brazilian president. “Those who have really polluted the planet for the last 200 years are those who made the industrial revolution, and that is why they must pay the historic debt they have with the planet”.
Several African heads of state are also raising their voices against the rich countries, which they say are quicker to pay billions to support Ukraine at war.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna at the Palais Brogniart in Paris on June 22, 2023 (POOL/AFP/Ludovic MARIN)
Kenyan President William Ruto told AFP that he had come “not to ask for help” from rich countries, but for a reform of the global financial architecture to allow developing countries to development to “be part of the solution”. “Today we are all in the same m.” in the face of global warming, he said.
The idea of the summit had germinated in November during the COP27 climate negotiations in Egypt, in the wake of a plan presented by Mia Mottley. The objective of the summit is to urgently renovate the international financial architecture, born of the Bretton Woods agreements in 1944 with the creation of the IMF and the World Bank.
Access to their financing is considered difficult by developing countries, while their needs are immense to face heat waves, droughts and floods, and to get out of poverty while freeing themselves from fossil fuels and preserving nature.
Among the many ideas under discussion, that of debt reduction against commitments to safeguard nature, or that of an international tax on carbon emissions from maritime transport.
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© 2023 AFP
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