Morales, Maduro slam capitalism, demand climate action

September 28, 2014
Issue 
Bolivian President Evo Morales with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro.

“The excessive focus on profits neither respects Mother Earth, nor takes human needs into account,” Bolivian President Evo Morales said in his speech to Untied nationals climate summit on September 23. “The continuation of this unequal system only leads to greater inequalities.”

Prensa Latina said that day that Morales called for incentives to respect Mother Earth and exhorted the developed countries to live up to their promises.

Morales, who spoke in the name of the Group of 77 plus China (G-77), of which Bolivia is the temporary president, highlighted the need for equitable laws for sustainable development.

Morales highlighted the adverse effects of climate change that are devastating societies in the developing world, threatening the right to development and survival of entire peoples and nations.

“The developing countries are continually suffering the effects of extreme weather, drastically eroding our advances in the process of eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable development,” he insisted.

Morales also called for structural solutions to climate change, along with immediate measures to deal with the impact of these extreme weather events, Presnsa Latina said.

“According to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capacities,” Morales said, “we emphasise that contributions must be made in a balanced context and must include the transfer of technologies and the creation of capacities.”

He said people in the global South must develop their economies to meet their human needs in a sustainable way, in harmony with Mother Earth, nature, and the ecosystems that provide our home.

But Morales pointed out that history has assigned the developed countries the responsibility of taking the initiative in dealing with this challenge.

“We express our concern over the lack of compliance with the commitments made by the developed countries,” he said.

Morales urged wealthy nations to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which “continues to be an important instrument for closing the gap between emissions and dealing with climate change”.

“We emphasise our deep disappointment and concern about the developed countries that remain outside the Kyoto Protocol, who have withdrawn from the pact or have not yet signed on,” he said, adding it raises serious doubts about the credibility and sincerity of the recalcitrant countries over climate change.

Morales said “the extent to which the developing countries are able to meet the commitments established in the United Nations agreement on climate change will depend on what the developed countries do by virtue of their financial resources and technology transfers”.

This would have a profound impact on economic and social development as well as in the eradication of poverty in the developing world, he emphasised.

Addressing the UN the same day, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared: “The environmental crisis is a result of the crisis of the dominating capitalist model, based on unsustainable production methods and consumption, which generates iniquity, injustice, poverty, and the destruction of the planet.”

Venezezuela Analysis said on September 23 that Maduro accused “the powerful of the world” of systematically assaulting nature without caution or respect for it’s limited capacity for renewal.

“We must change the economic model to change the planet,” Maduro insisted. He said Venezuela sustains 70% of its energy demands with hydroelectric plants and protects 60% of its natural territory, more than 58 million hectares of forest, with some form of administrative defence such as national park of wildlife reserve decrees.

Maduro said only “sustainable ecological development with an understanding of ecological social economics” will combat the environmental disaster. He called on “all of humanity” to join an inclusive plan for recovery.

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