We meet again in this global forum, which has historically been a vital space for the development of multilateralism, peacebuilding and responses to threats to our shared home, against the backdrop of a cruel pandemic that is battering our health systems, our economies, our gains in equity and progress on fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Above and beyond all considerations, we find ourselves once again in this historic hemicycle recalling the fragility of the human being and, at the same time, recognizing the greatness and capacity of a human race that can overcome any challenge.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) abruptly burst into our lives, changing our daily lives and interactions and taking away loved ones. This lethal virus has tested our emotions and brought us to understand, now more than ever, the worth of the embrace of a father and a mother, how much it means to us to share as a family and how much an unexpected friendly encounter fills our hearts.
While this fateful virus has threatened our economies and our education and health systems, technology — the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud computing and other applications — has revealed that advances in the virtual world are opportunities for human development. The pandemic has shown our strengths as well as our weaknesses.
We have observed failures of multilateralism to respond equitably and articulately to the most acute challenges. The gaps between nations in terms of vaccination are unprecedented. While some nations procure additional doses amounting to six or seven times the numbers of their populations and further announce the availability of third doses as boosters, other nations have not administered a single dose just to inject hope.
The pandemic has exacerbated other crises whose effects are equally threatening. We are witnessing the increased effects of climate change, greater inequalities caused by economic downturns, and migratory crises triggered by those who are willing to risk their lives, fleeing dictatorships and abusive regimes, for a decent job or a plate of food.
The pandemic has also had a major impact on peacebuilding and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. This reality provides me with the context to share with the General Assembly Colombia’s response to these global challenges and to propose actions that we must take together equitably, without divisiveness, and by thinking without restrictions about the future of humankind.
In our country, we have taken on the pandemic with three approaches: health care, care for the most vulnerable and economic revival. Our progress on the national vaccination plan allowed us to cover at least 70 per cent of Colombians. We joined the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility mechanism, assuming regional leadership and coordinating with the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. Today I call on the international community to strengthen multilateralism in health and to improve equity in the distribution of vaccines. That is our moral duty.
If we continue to fall behind in the equitable distribution of vaccines to all nations, we expose ourselves as humankind to new variants that may attack us with greater ferocity. Global immunity requires solidarity where there is no hoarding by some in the face of others’ needs.
In caring for the most vulnerable, we have acted with determination and creativity, inspired by the path set forth in the 2030 Agenda. We can proudly say that we are the Government of Colombia that has launched the most ambitious social agenda in this century and, perhaps, in all of Colombia’s recent history. We will keep in place until December 2022 a basic emergency income, the Solidarity Income, which reaches more than 4 million vulnerable households and provides direct economic support to more than 25 per cent of our entire population.
In addition, we have created an employment subsidy that protects more than 4 million official workers and a scheme for refunding the value added tax for more than 2 million vulnerable households, thereby correcting the regressive effect of this tax. This unprecedented social agenda also includes paying a 25 per cent premium for the hiring of young people, which is tantamount to social security. This is today a State policy that reinforces the implementation of a policy that embodies true transformation for social good: public university education provided tuition-free on a permanent basis to the neediest as well as to the emerging middle class of our country.
These advances, which have arisen from effort and fiscal responsibility, allow us to protect our social achievements. We have made the most significant social reform of this century in Colombia by adopting the greatest fiscal reform. Revenue collection has reached 1.8 per cent of gross domestic product, thereby strengthening fiscal control of debt and deficit reduction and establishing a clear path to stabilizing public finances and ensuring a broad social safety net. That collective effort was achieved without populism or demagogy, while guaranteeing competition among businesses.
Our achievements in health, social care and fiscal stability are all part of the Commitment to Colombia, our reactivation agenda. With private, public and public-private investments, we are already seeing economic gains — the second quarter of this year was undoubtedly our best quarter in terms of growth this century. It has also set us firmly on the path towards a growth rate of more than 7 per cent in 2021, which will allow us to achieve our highest levels of growth this century.
The Colombian New Deal is the best way to recover in the wake of the pandemic’s impact on the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addition, it guides us and brings us closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Today I am making a global call. Many emerging countries, faced with the threat of COVID-19, have been forced to increase their debt and fiscal deficits. Many have not begun to go through the necessary fiscal reforms to pay for emergency expenditures and are now being evaluated by credit rating agencies with pre-pandemic standards and criteria.
Given the high levels of debt and existing needs, a global consensus, led by the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks, is required to establish new minimum fiscal risk criteria during the post-COVID-19 recovery phase. Otherwise, in the short term, in the face of the demand for debt and a generalized increase in the cost of capital, we might see a debt crisis that could bring about further setbacks and global recessionary effects.
All of the challenges and actions we are addressing today are also taking place amid the greatest threat faced by humankind, namely, the climate crisis. In the face of that challenge, Colombia is acting with determination and a moral commitment. We are a country that represents only 0.6 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, yet is one of those most threatened by the effects of climate change.
Our action requires commitment, boldness and exercising leadership by example. That is why we will be attending the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow with a commitment to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions by 51 per cent by 2030. We are also on course to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Our journey in that regard has already begun, as underscored by our rapid energy transition, which already has its own legislation. We are exponentially expanding that legislation to include non-conventional and renewable energies in order to multiply by 20 our available capacity in comparison to when our Government first took power. We also hope to achieve zero deforestation by 2030, which will go hand in hand with the development of the circular economy, harnessing an efficient green hydrogen cycle and, above all, unrestricted defence of the Amazon.
Limited fiscal stability as a result of the impact of the pandemic will become an obstacle for many in meeting our shared goals if we do not develop global tools. I therefore propose to the international community that, for a certain period of time and with the support of the International Monetary Fund, a rule be established whereby all structural climate action expenditures and investments can be considered outside the traditional fiscal deficit measurement lines.
Such tools, as well as multilateral debt relief and debt forgiveness in the face of concrete climate action achievements, should be applied as soon as possible and without conditions. When addressing urgent
investments, we cannot be hindered by domestic political debates arising from conflicts over resource allocation. Action needs to be taken now, immediately and without delay. Our region, Latin America and the Caribbean, needs to strengthen green financing, which urgently requires the capitalization of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Development Bank of Latin America. That must be conducted alongside other tools.
Colombia is tackling the pandemic, addressing climate action and, at the same time, dealing with the worst migratory crisis on the planet due to the millions of Venezuelans fleeing the infamous narco-dictatorship. Our work with the United Nations and the Office of Mr. Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has shown great progress, including by granting temporary protection status to 1.8 million Venezuelan migrants living in our country.
We shoulder that challenge without being a rich country and at an enormous fiscal cost. The situation requires the disbursement of the commitments made by the international community through the donor conferences established. I therefore call for mobilization in that regard.
I must pause here to state the following clearly: although the dialogue between the interim Government of Venezuela, which embodies the democratic resistance, and the narco-dictatorship offers some hope, there is no room for naivety. The only effective outcome of the situation would be the convening, as soon as possible, of a free and transparent presidential election with careful international observation. Any solution that perpetuates the shameful dictatorship and allows the regime to gain time will only exacerbate the greatest humanitarian disaster our continent has ever known. The end of the dictatorship is the only viable path to the well-being of the Venezuelan people. That, above all, should be the purpose of international action in that regard.
On the other hand, Colombia is also making progress in building on our “peace with legality” policy. Not even the effects of the cruel COVID-19 pandemic will deter us from our commitment to the demand of our people for an end to narco-terrorist violence. The fragile Final Peace Agreement, which was signed in 2016 with the terrorist group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), has seen significant progress made, allowing us to consolidate the reintegration process of those who are now entering legality, as verified by the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia.
Thanks to our commitment to development plans with a territorial focus and our focus on those areas most affected by violence, the Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia has highlighted that, in the three years that our Administration has been in power, more progress has been made than in the first 20 months of implementation.
In that context, we are moving towards the largest investment in tertiary roads and the largest property certification initiative in our history. We are also making progress in the implementation of a multipurpose land registry, with an agenda to ensure equity in the purchase of rural products without intermediaries. That has led us to enjoy the largest agricultural commodities exports ever recorded in the country.
Nevertheless, we continue to face multiple challenges due to the activities of FARC dissidents, the National Liberation Army and other criminal groups that have never been committed to peace. They persist in their attacks on social leaders, environmental leaders and those in the process of reintegration.
Despite the many challenges, our peace with legality policy shows us that we have excellent reasons to be optimistic. In recent decades, we have recorded the lowest homicide and kidnapping rates in history since statistics were first taken for those heinous crimes, without losing sight of the fact that drug trafficking fuels violence and that we have to take firm measures to combat it. We have succeeded in confiscating the largest amounts of coca and manually eradicating the greatest number of illicit crops in the history of Colombia.
We are moving forward with resolve, but we must make a difference by acting together. In Colombia, greater coca production means lower levels of peace and environmental protection. Every gram of coca consumed in demand-driven nations translates into homicide and ecocide in Colombia. For every hectare of coca that has been planted, two hectares of tropical rain forest are destroyed. Dealing with the worrisome increase in narcotics consumption throughout the world is urgent. It is time for members of the international community to assume their share of responsibility.
The fight against crime and strengthening peace with legality demand that we continue to make progress in zero-tolerance for all behaviour by members of the
public force that runs contrary to the Constitution and the law and that we continue to take substantial steps towards structural reforms of law enforcement, in tandem with unconditionally and constantly defending human rights. Our public force is patriotic and committed, and its mandate is to always act in line with the Constitution, the law and human rights.
The realities that we are facing also demand that we constantly strengthen democracy to counter any threat posed by hatred and social division. All that we can do to ensure a solid democracy is a guarantee for a better future. In Colombia, young people have been hit hard by the pandemic, and today they are leading the major debates on climate action by proposing policies and joint action.
We have signed a pact with the youth to make a genuine change in the policies that will benefit them. In December, the first open and popular elections will take place to form municipal youth councils. Such elections are unprecedented in Latin America and will legitimize young people as the citizens who will effectively pave the way forward so that policymaking prevails over protests. That represents the great determination of Colombia, and we will not fail, as we want those young, empowered citizens to demonstrate our true capacity for democratic change.
This will be the last time that I address the Assembly in my capacity as President of Colombia. In 2018, I outlined our legality, entrepreneurship and equality agenda (see A/73/PV.8). In the year 2021, we have shown that, despite the situation that the pandemic has forced upon us, our agenda continues to march on. It has become State policy and is progressing in step with the circumstances. Colombia is moving forward on large-scale vaccinations. Colombia is moving forward on safely reopening. Colombia is moving forward with the largest budget for social programmes in the country’s history. Colombia is moving forward on energy transition and climate action. Colombia is moving forward on its fraternal approach towards migration. Colombia, which embodies peace with truth, justice, reparations and non-repetition, is also on a clear path ahead.
Colombia has invested in gender equality among the members of the Cabinet. Colombia also wants to contribute to the modernization and reform of this great multilateral organization in order to ensure its longevity and make it more relevant to the citizens whom it serves.
We know that we have many challenges and obstacles to overcome, but Colombia is a great nation that thinks globally in its efforts to become an example and foster progress. This is the Colombia that believes in multilateralism and the Colombia that calls for joint action. This is the Colombia that solves problems involving democracy within democracy, faces adversity with the certainty of turning it into an opportunity, never lets up and will never let up in the face of any storm. Colombia is made up of good, honourable and hard-working people, who are today represented at this global meeting and would like to say through me that it is time for action on climate change and brotherly migration. They demand that, united together, we must not wait any longer.