Another year has been lost since the deception of Copenhagen
• Speech by Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, at the high-level segment of the 16th COP/CMP6 of the UNFCCC, Cancun, Mexico, December 8, 2010.

• Mr. President

Distinguished heads of state and government; heads of delegations:

Distinguished delegates:

Powerful forces are assuring without hesitation that climate change does not exist, that there is nothing to be concerned about and that the serious problem bringing us here today is a total fabrication. They are those in the United States Congress who are currently opposing the ratification of the weak agreements which control the proliferation of nuclear weapons, in a senseless crusade whose sole purpose is to retrieve a small part of the power that they lost barely two years ago.

They are the ones who want to reduce taxes for the 10% of the population who control 90% of the wealth, the same individuals who are opposed to the health reform, unemployment benefits and any proposal that signifies a small step toward progress or equity.

The fact is, and those of us meeting here know it very well, that climate change, plus the serious threat of a military conflagration of nuclear dimensions, constitute the gravest and most imminent dangers that humanity is confronting in terms of its survival.

The absence of progress toward a real solution of both problems is the result of the irresponsible attitude of those who promote and benefit from plunder, disasters, wars and the tragedy being experienced by our peoples.

It is the duty of all of us to demand that those bearing the full historical responsibility cease squandering and irrationally consuming the limited resources of our planet and direct the million-dollar sums that they currently utilize for making war to the promotion of peace and the sustainable development of all nations.

One year ago in Copenhagen, there was a failure to respond to world expectations at the 15th Conference of the Parties to this Convention, with the vision of achieving a global accord which would confront climate change in a just and effective way.

What predominated there were anti-democratic procedures and a total lack of transparency. A group of countries, headed by the United States, the largest per capita and historic polluter, hijacked the negotiations process and imposed an apocryphal document that does not even resolve the challenges identified by the most conservative scientific investigations into the issue. Copenhagen turned out to be a disaster.

The United States and the European Union then proceeded to launch a campaign of political, financial and conditional pressure in relation to Official Development Assistance in an attempt to give legitimacy to the nonexistent "Copenhagen Agreement."

The recently disclosed U.S. documents, including the one registered as 249182, 10BRUSSELS183, dated February 17, 2010 are of particular interest. It refers to actions – and I quote – "To neutralize, co-opt or marginalize" a group of states among which Cuba is mentioned. I have this document here and others in my possession, which demonstrate the perfidious diplomacy of the powers in relation to climate change

Mr. President:

Climate change is a global threat which also requires global solutions that are just, equitable and balanced and which involve all the countries of the world. For that reason, after an arduous effort, we adopted the Framework Convention and its Kyoto Protocol and for that reason, its cardinal principles are as valid today as when we conceived them.

It is widely acknowledged that the principal cause of the alteration of the world climatic system is the pattern of unsustainable production and consumption that prevails in the developed countries. It is also acknowledged that the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and the respective capacities of states constitutes the cornerstone of a just and enduring solution.

The countries of the South are not responsible for the lack of agreement to halt climate change. Rather, we are the victims of the lack of progress and the egotistical attitudes of those who are already enjoying the overexploitation of the planet’s exhausted resources. The small islands, even more vulnerable, merit special consideration and treatment.

The People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which took place last May in Cochabamba, made essential proposals that must be taken into account.

Mr. President:

A long-term agreement has to guarantee a perspective of sustainable development for the countries of the Third World and not an additional and stifling restriction on attaining it. That implies that their greenhouse gas emissions must inevitably grow in order to meet the needs of their economic and social development. The Framework Convention established that and the developed countries must accept it.

In the framework of a second period of commitments within the Kyoto Protocol, the industrialized countries have to assume binding, quantifiable and more ambitious obligations in terms of reducing their emissions.

It is necessary and urgent to adopt today, here in Cancun, concrete decisions on a second period of commitments to the Kyoto Protocol. There is a group of developed countries, in this same negotiation process, trying to eliminate the Kyoto Protocol on the pretext that it covers only 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the Framework Convention covers 100% of those emissions and this is simply an egotistical pretext.

A least one clear and precise road map must emerge from this meeting in Cancun, moving toward the solution of the central problems of climate change, looking ahead to the 17th COP in Durban, in one year’s time.

Combating climate change involves confronting poverty and social inequality. It implies an obligation to transfer technology from the industrialized North to the underdeveloped South. It requires facilitating financial resources that will allow developing economies to face up to adaptation and mitigation, and to make available new funding over and above existing Official Development Assistance commitments, which are constantly more precarious and conditional.

While it would seem viable that agreements in the context of adaptation and the transfer of technology can be reached in this Conference, it is essential for us to define financial mechanisms or genuinely significant resources for confronting the effects of climate change.

These mechanisms could not function within the structure of the World Bank or any other institution of the Bretton Woods system, because that would involve conditions, discrimination and exclusions. The Bretton Woods institutions are as historically responsible for climate change as the governments of developed countries.

It is not about an act of charity but, above all, a moral and legal obligation resulting from the commitments assumed in the Convention. The crumbs promised in Copenhagen were extremely meager and have not even materialized; nor will market mechanisms or neoliberal policies, which no longer have any credibility whatsoever, help us to advance.

Mr. President:

The terrible floods which Venezuela and Colombia are suffering right now invoke all our solidarity and are evidence of the urgency of the problem.

The world order is unsustainable. In order to survive, human society will have to organize itself in another way. The time has come to act. Time is running out. Another year has been lost since the deception of Copenhagen. The peoples cannot wait for the powerful.

Thank you very much. •