CÚPULA DA AMÉRICA LATINA E DO CARIBE SOBRE ... - Funag

CÚPULA DA AMÉRICA LATINA E DO CARIBE SOBRE INTEGRAÇÃO E DESENVOLVIMENTO - CALC
Second, climate change is the biggest risk. Somebody mentioned, I think
it was the President of Mexico this morning, about the biggest physical threat
that there is. Yet, we are sleepwalking through this whole process. We don’t
pay enough attention to this matter. And this is not a climate matter, it is not an
environmental matter, it is a matter of development, because the consequences
on development will be so great that, if we don’t address them now we could
decimate all of poor economies. Take for example the Caribbean countries,
very vulnerable to hurricanes .Some of these countries have lost the equivalent
of 80% of their Gross Domestic Product in one hurricane, and other hurricanes
follow. How can progress be secured in these countries if you have more
frequent hurricanes? For them adaptation is so important and we need to pay
attention to this.
Forests provide so many eco-services to the world, yet they are not
remunerated because a ton of carbon emitted in Europe or sequestered in
Europe is the same as a ton of carbon sequestered here or emitted here by
cutting trees. Yet, they are prepared to pay US$ 30,000 per ton in Europe
and zero to countries like ours who are providing the same services. We
need to correct this but how do we do so? We have to get the highest level
to give first order attention to this issue, including Presidents, Ministers of
Finance, Foreign Ministers, not just Environmental Ministers, and we need
to coordinate our positions when we go to Copenhagen or before that to
make sure that we have a proper deal that recognizes the interests of the
region as a whole.
So these are some things that we are going to, we have to do, but we are
not going to do if we only meet once in a while. We have to improve this, and
I have always lamented that we don’t take time to build relationships among
each other. We have people or delegations at the IMF, at the World Bank,
and other institutions, and yet, Latin American delegations don’t meet with
Caribbean delegations to work out outcomes and positions. They prefer to
meet with Americans or Europeans than to meet with each other. We need to
change that, and I have said this a hundred times: we must change the relationship
at the working level. We can meet from time to time and express good intentions
here, but we are not going to make a difference at the level where it matters.
Similarly, we need to make sure that our representatives in Copenhagen get
together prior to any negotiations involving this region, so that when we get
together we go in with one position, a position that accommodates the interests
of all the people in this room. So these are just a few things that I thought I
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