The climate summit in Paris came to an end with a “full consensus” on the need for deep reform in the global financial system, but without achieving a revolution that fully reconciles the fight against global warming with poverty reduction. After two days of discussions with the participation of some 40 leaders, including those of Brazil, Colombia, and Cuba, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed satisfaction with the consensus reached to make the global financial system more efficient and equitable.
Despite the speeches, the concrete outcomes of the summit, which took place at the Brongniart Palace in Paris, were few and came mainly from groups of countries or coalitions. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Barbados, among others, agreed with the World Bank and other agencies on a system for suspending debt repayment in the event of natural disasters. This was a demand of the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, who welcomed the consensus around this principle and called for working together to preserve the only planet on which we live.
Among the advances cited by Macron was an agreement among several creditor countries to restructure Zambia’s debt, as well as the redistribution of $100 billion in special drawing rights to poor countries, as promised in 2021. He also stressed that the promise to unlock another $100 billion a year from 2020 to help poor countries tackle climate change will be fulfilled this year, albeit with a delay.
However, the non-governmental organization Climate Action Network (CAN) criticized the summit for turning something old into something new and lamented the idea of suspending debt repayments rather than canceling debt altogether.
The summit was held under pressure from civil society, especially young environmental activists such as Greta Thunberg, who demonstrated on the Place de la Republique in Paris to demand green finance. Some participants expressed their discontent with the lack of concrete actions, such as stopping the financing of fossil fuels, which are one of the causes of climate change.
Confidence among the most vulnerable countries, grouped in the V20, is low due to unfulfilled promises by more developed nations. There was a call for the modernization of multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to focus on the fight against climate change, poverty reduction, human development, and the protection of biodiversity.
In addition, bilateral meetings were held during the summit, such as the working lunch between Lula da Silva and Macron, in which the pending ratification of the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur was discussed. Lula expressed his dissatisfaction with the additional environmental demands posed by the EU, which are hindering the ratification of the agreement.