French President Emmanuel Macron told global leaders that no country should have to choose between tackling poverty and dealing with climate change at a summit tasked with reimagining the world’s financial system.
The Summit for a New Global Financial Pact is aimed at finding the financial solutions to the interlinked global goals of tackling poverty, curbing planet-heating emissions and protecting nature.
In his opening remarks Mr Macron told delegates that the world needs “public finance shock” to fight these challenges, adding the current system was not well suited to address the world’s challenges.
“Policymakers and countries shouldn’t ever have to choose between reducing poverty and protecting the planet,” Mr Macron said.
Ugandan climate campaigner Vanessa Nakate took the podium after Macron and asked the audience, which included oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to take a minute of silence for people who are suffering from disasters.
She slammed the fossil fuel industry, saying they promise development for poor communities but the energy goes elsewhere and the profits “lie in the pockets of those who are already extremely rich”.
“It seems there is plenty of money, so please do not tell us that we have to accept toxic air and barren fields and poisoned water so that we can have development,” she said.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, and other campaigners
are in Paris on the sidelines of the summit
Economies have been battered by successive crises in recent years, including Covid-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, spiking inflation, debt, and the spiralling cost of weather disasters intensified by global warming.
Leaders attending the summit include Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has become a powerful advocate for reimagining the role of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in an era of climate crisis.
Kenyan President William Ruto will “underscore the urgent need to move beyond incremental measures that fall short of effectively combating the climate crisis and fail to generate investment benefits for Africa”, his office said.
Other participants include UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, IMF director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank chief Ajay Banga.–AGENCIES
