President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva demanded this Friday, 7th, that rich countries bear most of the responsibility for the climate crisis. This was Lula’s last speech at the Leaders’ Summit that precedes the United Nations Climate Summit (COP30).
“It is viable to work for a just transition in which the Global South has the opportunities that were denied to it in the past. We can move towards the future without giving up demanding that those who have historically benefited most from emissions live up to their responsibilities”, said the president.
Lula defended debt forgiveness for poor countries in exchange for investments in clean projects. “Debt exchange instruments for climate action have already proven viable.”
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The president highlighted that a small portion of climate financing reaches developing countries and that the majority of resources are loans, which means that these countries end up having to pay interest. “It makes no sense, ethically or practically, to demand that developing countries pay interest to combat global warming and cope with its effects. This represents reverse financing, flowing from the Global South to the Global North.”
He stressed the need for the private sector to participate in private financing (without which “the account won’t close”) and that tackling climate change should be seen as “an investment, not an expense”. “Most of the world’s wealth generated in the last four decades was appropriated by individuals or companies,” said Lula, highlighting research by the NGO Oxfam that shows that a person belonging to the richest 0.1% of the planet emits, in a single day, more carbon than the poorest 50% of the world’s population during an entire year.
The president also stated that it is “crucial” to define better methodologies for accounting for climate financing. He also said that multilateral banks need to be more effective.
