The initiative, unprecedented within the framework of a conference of this kind, will be a space to articulate the position of the group, chaired this year by Cuba, regarding the climate negotiations, the Cuban head of State noted at the General Debate of the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The members of the G77+China allocated 379 billion dollars of their reserves to defend their currencies in 2022, nearly twice the amount of rights assigned to them by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Cuban President emphasized.
The G77+China continues to struggle with the need to change their status as primary victims of the current multidimensional global crisis, of the abusive unequal exchange, of the scientific-technological gap, and environmental degradation, he added.
On the way to COP28, the forum that brings together the voice of the South has among its priorities the Global Balance exercise; the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund; the definition of the framework for the Adaptation Objective and the establishment of the new climate financing goal, Díaz-Canel announced.
“While the richest countries fail to meet their commitment to allocating at least 0.7 percent of their Gross National Product (GDP) to Official Development Assistance, the Southern nations have to spend up to 14 percent of their income to pay associated interest to the foreign debt,” he pointed out.
Most G77 States and China are forced to allocate more resources to debt services than to investments in health care or education, an unobjectionable obstacle to its development, the Cuban President noted.
The bloc, which brings together 80 percent of the world’s population, not only has the challenge of development, but also the responsibility for modifying the structures that marginalize it from global progress and turn many peoples of the South into laboratories for renewed forms of domination, Díaz-Canel added.
He stressed that the alliance will demand its rights and continue to demand a profound transformation of the current international financial architecture, which he described as unfair, anachronistic and dysfunctional.
That system was designed to profit from the reserves of the South, perpetuate a system of domination that increases underdevelopment and reproduce a model of modern colonialism, Díaz-Canel stressed.
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