With hundreds of world leaders, bankers and climate change activists, an extraordinary, if alarmed, optimism has befallen Paris. They came for a two-day conference dubbed The New Bretton Woods.
Reference is made to a convention held in New Hampshire in 1944. Diplomats were overwhelmed The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were the financial institutions that helped rebuild countries after World War II. The goal now is to rebuild these systems to survive the immediate crisis of the intertwined crisis of poverty and climate change.
French President Emmanuel Macron argued last year that “we do not have to choose between the fight against poverty and the fight to protect the climate and biodiversity”.
Many believe that a new international monetary system is being built that will provide financial assistance to developing countries facing the climate crisis rather than further devastating debt.
On Wednesday, the night before the conference, 13 world leaders, including President Biden, issued statements. open letter Some 40 newspapers, including Le Monde, expressed their determination to “forge a new global agreement” and said the summit would stand out as a “defining political moment”.
I also have anxiety. Some worry that the conference will be yet another grand summit of leaders who love their role as multilateral consensus-makers and disruptors, but it will not necessarily bring results. do not have.
Cécile Duflo, executive director of French anti-poverty group Oxfam, said: “The French president is interested in international engagement, but the problem is that after more than six years in office, he has run out of energy and trust. ‘ said. He said the summit should yield concrete commitments to reduce debt, not just “talk”.
“Given that 62 countries are now paying more for debt service than for health care, it is clear that the system is dysfunctional,” Duflo said.
The conference was the idea of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Motley, not Mr Macron.
Last November, Motley drew his financial reform proposals from the stage of the United Nations climate change summit, known as COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. She and her team named it the Bridgetown Initiative.
Motley said the financial system, which was created a quarter of a century ago, was “imperial” and was built in the same way many countries in the world were before they became independent. He advocates for large-scale financing so that developing countries most vulnerable to climate change disasters and already facing debt crises can access capital to combat poverty and damage and pay the costs of transitioning to a green economy. asked for a review.
“Yes, it’s time to revisit Bretton Woods,” said Motley.
Although unexpected, the response was strong, with IMF President Kristalina Georgieva supporting the need for reform. She also announced that Mr. Biden’s special climate envoy, John Kelly, would also attend. So did the CEO of Bank of America.
Macron has already hosted an international summit. biodiversitymarine protection, forest, was also enthusiastic.The project seemed a natural fit for the president of the country hosting the Paris Climate Agreement, and he to be announced soon A summit will be held in Paris to advance some proposals.
The agenda includes many of the items Mr. Motley has asked for. i.e., using public funds to tap into large-scale private investment in developing countries. Increase access by these countries to financial assistance from the IMF. and allow countries to suspend international loan payments after climate-related disasters.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will also attend. So does US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“In the eight years I’ve been campaigning, this has never happened. This kind of head of state with the political will to radically reform the structure of international finance,” said the campaigner. Daniel Bose said. Advocacy group Avaaz.
Lawrence Tubiana, chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and one of the architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement, said just five years ago, discussion of World Bank reform would have been taboo. But since then, the economic conditions facing many developing countries in the world have deteriorated significantly, she said.
“We need political leadership,” Tubiana said of Macron. “He understands all these issues and is in a position to do it.” “I hope he’s really looking for a legacy on that.”
About 80 countries, including not only the major powers of the global economy, but also smaller debtor countries already suffering from climate change-related impacts, such as Guinea-Bissau, Haiti and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, will attend the summit. Ministers will participate.
Last week, Mr Macron’s team said the event was not aimed at making specific announcements, but rather towards an agreement at subsequent meetings, particularly at the World Bank and IMF annual meetings, the G20 summit and the next UN climate change conference. It is intended to facilitate the path of and the General Assembly of the International Maritime Organization, which is under pressure to tax emissions from the shipping industry.
“If we get a lot of support here and actually reach an agreement at the IMO summit in July, that would be huge,” Bose said. “Three years ago, we would have celebrated such an outcome at the climate conference.”
With many of the activists flocking to the city saying they are happy to have more seats at the table of leaders of the global South, President Macron will use his powerful mandate to control the small island nation. Amplifies the proposal of Mr. Massachusetts, a woman of color from her hometown. Motley. But they have lobbied to bring more controversial issues to the forefront, notably the fossil fuel industry and taxes on the super-rich who live on jet planes.
“Climate finance is great, but if you don’t stop the fossil fuel industry, it’s just a quick fix solution,” said Mitzi Jonel Tan, a climate justice activist from the Philippines who regularly gets hit by typhoons. said. “I grew up afraid of drowning in my bedroom.”
Patience Navkal is from Uganda, where the French oil company Total Energy financed the well and the 870-mile East African crude oil pipeline. The plan is seen by opponents as a “carbon bomb” and a potential threat to the drinking water supply of the 40 million people living around the Lake Victoria basin. The Macron government has quietly backed the project.
Navkal, 25, said: “Let us prove them wrong for thinking that these are just empty promises. But we stand up for this project to stop and show it to be true.” Show me, there can be no fiscal reform as long as you are still here.” Fund fossil fuel projects. “
Aurelian Breeden and Juliette Gueron-Gabriel contributed to the report from Paris.
