Gathering of leaders and activists in Paris, seeking a response to the climate emergency and poverty

A two-day summit, June 22-23 at Paris, to host world leaders, heads of international organizations and activists to seek better answers to address the problems of poverty and climate change trying to remodel the global financial system. Under accusation, by developing nations, a outdated system where USA, Europe, China and the big economies, responsible of most climate damage, they are letting i poorer countries suffer the consequences. Not only. The pandemic, war in Ukraine and a global debt crisis have led to falling life expectancy and rising poverty in most countries around the world, the United Nations Development Program said.

The skepticism of activists

The president organized the summit Emmanuel Macron who recently declared: “The fight against poverty, the efforts to curb global warming and the protection of biodiversity are closely intertwined. We must therefore agree on the best means together to address these challenges in poor and emerging countries”. But there is great skepticism by activists who fear that the talks will end up with a hole in the water. “The current financial system doesn’t just need a bandage, it needs intensive surgery,” he said Harjeet Singh, Head of Global Policy Strategy at Climate Action Network International – there are some good ideas on the table, but they don’t really go far enough”. Here are Singh’s requests: “We ask for the debt cancellation. Let’s ask public financing for climate issues”. Not only that. Climate activists and developing nations are also urging rich countries to keep their existing commitments. Experts should announce that the commitment to deliver to poor nations $100 billion in aid each year to address global change should be met for the first time this year. Made for the first time in 2009 and reaffirmed at the Paris climate summit in 2015, the promise was never kept. Among the key issues to be discussed are the changes needed in the way the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund lend and lend money to the most vulnerable countries. Both institutions have been criticized for failing to factor climate change into lending decisions and for being dominated by wealthy countries such as the United States. And again: the summit participants should support a tax on greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping.

The demands between taxes on industry and financial transactions

Activists are pushing for one tax on the fossil fuel industry and another on financial transactions, two proposals that appear to have little support from wealthier nations. Debt restructuring and relief are also under discussion, as more countries struggle with unsustainable debt exacerbated by climate change issues, the issue – activists say – will have no impact on existing debt. Cecile Duflot, general manager of Oxfam Francesaid that there is a “historical and political responsibility” of rich nations and a “duty of solidarity” towards poorer countries. While the Filipino climate justice activist Mitzi Jonelle Tan he said: “My country is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world and we are experiencing this climate impact every single day. Yet we, our generation and our countries are expected to go into debt… because most climate finance is in the form of loans. We are saying: enough!”

The names of the participants

At the summit are expected forty heads of state and government, many of them from poor and vulnerable nations. Only two are members of the Group of Seven Most Developed Countries: Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The United States is represented by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry. Participants included Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, World Bank head Ajay Banga and the president of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva.