Cuba’s Voice to Be Heard at UN Climate Conference COP28

By Alejandra Garcia on November 30, 2023

Today world leaders will discuss climate change at COP28, this year’s UN world conference, where the voice of Cuba and the world’s most vulnerable peoples, represented in Group 77 plus China, will be present. Urgent discussions will demand action, considering the record global temperatures and extreme weather events affecting the planet’s population.

“This will be an opportunity to continue developing political and bilateral ties in areas of common interest where there is the potential to expand and diversify relations,” Cuban President and pro tempore leader of the G77+China, Miguel Diaz-Canel, highlighted in X.

Diaz-Canel arrived on Monday in the United Arab Emirates, the venue of the world meeting, where a summit of G-77 leaders on climate change will also be held. This meeting will be led by the Cuban president and will allow the 134 member countries to coordinate positions, agree on ideas and have concrete proposals to assert the aspirations and demands of the nations of the South and discuss the problems that concern this COP 28.

According to the director of International Relations of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment (Citma), Ulises Fernández, Cuba will bring to COP28 results, commitment and willingness to contribute to the global effort to ensure that this event leads to a real change in the ways of facing global challenges.

For her part, Cuba’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Environment, Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, argued that COP28 should send a clear message to phase out the use of fossil fuels, end fossil fuel subsidies, and expand renewable energies. We know that expansion cannot be compatible with a 1.5C temperature increase.”

The aim is not to shelve the proposals to be presented by developing countries, as is usually the case in this type of meeting. Cuba will share the public policies and governmental plans it applies to face climate change such as the Tarea Vida policy (Task Life), which shows the accurate relationship between science and politics in the Caribbean island.

“Cuba is an example to follow because of the comprehensiveness of the effort, which involves the whole society and all the economy sectors,” Montoya added.

As part of the international dialog, leaders worldwide will discuss the progress established by the Paris Agreement (the historic climate treaty signed in 2015) and outline the action plan to reduce emissions drastically and protect lives and livelihoods, according to the UN website.

“Cuba ratifies the need to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and ratifies the urgency to increase the ambition of the Paris Agreement. However, the financial funds for this are unavailable,” warned the Cuban president, who will make official working visits to Qatar and Iran at the end of COP28 on December 12.

Cuba and the G77+China are committed to target and hold accountable those mainly responsible for the climate crisis, proposing policies to help curb global warming and demanding funding from the powerful and highly polluting nations to prevent the death of life on Earth.

COP28 must hear the claims of the people from the South, who are the most vulnerable ones and those who suffer the most from the impacts of climate change. Otherwise, this will be just another summit with empty results, thanks to those who put profit before people and the health of the Earth where we all live.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English