In different international scenarios, the Colombian president has advocated for a great 'Marshall Plan' for the Sustainable Development Goals "to overcome, mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis, which is the crisis of life".
San Francisco, November 16th, 2023
Colombian President Gustavo Petro is participating today at the APEC Leaders' Summit 2023, in San Francisco, California, along with leaders and delegates from the 21 economies of the Alliance about key topics of his Government agenda.
Sustainability, climate change and energy transition, central issues of the Summit, are fundamental to Colombia's agenda and part of the Government policies, such as: energy security, sustainability, digital transformation, fair trade, women's economic empowerment, health, and food security.
“May a green future be possible. Climate change is a reality. And it is urgent. Neither the left nor the right say so, science says so. We have to and must be able to find a model that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable", President Petro warned at his inauguration speech.
Colombian President's participation in the APEC Leaders' Summit is aligned with the fourth objective of the National Development Plan 2022-2026 'Colombia Power of Life', focused on productive transformation, internationalization, and climate action.
“Productivity is expected to foster the country's sustainable development and competitiveness, increasing wealth while being inclusive, progressively leaving behind dependence on extractive activities and opening a path towards a reindustrialized economy with new sectors supported by territorial potentialities in harmony with nature", the Plan stresses.
One of the Government's most recent programs, the implementation of the Energy Communities in the department of Guajira, is aiming towards this objective, to advance on the energy transition in Colombia.
“123 Energy Communities started in La Guajira. We designed a financing plan for these communities to install solar roofs and parks, in the urban areas, and rural spaces to generate electricity from the sun", President Petro said on his X account on November 12th.
This National Development Plan's transformation axis focuses on the internationalization aim. Colombia's participation in international scenarios such as the APEC Leaders Summit is coherent to that aim.
Biden support to debt-for-nature swaps
During the inaugural Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity Leaders' Summit, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his government is working with multilateral institutions on a new investment platform to support finance for climate solutions “such as debt-for-nature swaps and blue/green bonds".
“The United States Department of State announced plans to establish a new fund at the IDB to facilitate investments in innovative and scalable nature-based solutions, such as debt-for-nature swaps and blue/green bonds to help preserve our hemisphere's rich biodiversity, reduce carbon emissions, and create good jobs", quoted the
Statement from the White House.
This Biden's proposal gave an important endorsement to the Colombian president's initiatives, presented in several international forums on a debt-for-climate action swap for South nations.
A 'Marshall Plan' to overcome climate crisis
At the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, held on July in Paris, President Petro proposed for the first time the possibility to create a 'Marshall Plan' to stop climate crisis, supported by multilateral institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“It would be, practically, financing a Marshall Plan against the climate crisis, a great step for humanity, the first to overcome what could be the greatest problem that could lead to our extinction", President Petro said then.
Clean energies were again one of the Colombian President's proposals at the
EU-CELAC Summit in Brussels on 17-18 July.
"It can be produced from the Sahara, it can be produced from Latin America. The most powerful region in producing clean energy is South America. We have the third climate pillar, the rainforest and the potential. And that would change geopolitics. It would not be the North, but the South", he assured in his speech in Brussels.
APEC Leaders' Summit
Senior officials, ministers, delegates, and business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region will participate in the APEC Economic Leaders' Week in San Francisco from November 11-17.
Delegates from each of the 21 member economies will participate in high-level meetings on topics such as: supply chain resilience; science, research and innovation; critical and emerging technology; clean energy; high-level infrastructure; women's economic empowerment; and inclusion.
Despite not being an APEC member economy, Colombia participates as a guest country in five working groups: tourism, services, investment experts, MSMEs and customs procedures.
(Fin/nth/gop)
