I take this rostrum with a heavy heart, more pessimistic than I was last year and more cynical and disappointed. We have come to depend on the multilateral system that has the Charter of the United Nations at its centre. Where is the collective will to adequately address the challenges of our time? Where is our shared conviction to work together for the betterment of humankind? Where is the hope?
Today there are conflicts on several continents; geopolitical tensions are heightened. The unjustified, unprovoked and illegal attack on Ukraine by the Russian Federation has shaken the foundations of the multilateral system. That is wrong. The consequential crises that we face are not confined to the battlefield in Europe; they are global and affect us all.
Democratic norms and human rights, even where thought to be firmly rooted, are being rolled back. Poverty is on the increase. The planet is being destroyed by climate change. International cooperation and solidarity have been supplanted by nationalism and unilateralism.
Global market prices for food and petroleum remain volatile, having reached historic highs earlier this year. The lingering impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and persistent supply-chain disruptions have contributed to skyrocketing inflation.
Those economic realities exacerbate an already acute social situation in Belize. Poverty is estimated to have risen by 10 per cent between 2018 and 2021. A total of 45.5 per cent of Belizeans are estimated to be moderately to severely food insecure. Homicides are again on the rise.
The post-pandemic recovery that we anticipated is delayed, and the chorus of promises and commitments to pivoting towards building back better and to getting the recovery right have yielded little. Instead, global action and inaction have resulted only in deepening the many crises that we are facing.
Global temperatures have already increased by 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels. Greenhouse gas emissions reached record highs in 2021 and continue to rise this year.
Fossil fuels are still dominant, while renewables account for an abysmal 15 per cent of global energy sources. The current energy crisis in Europe has led to people using more fossil fuels as a panacea rather than doubling down on the energy transition. Biodiversity is declining at a faster rate than ever before, with profound and unknown consequences for our environment, health, productivity and well-being. Those realities heighten climate risk, especially for vulnerable States. Belize ranks eighth of 183 on the Global Climate Risk Index. We are but one hurricane away from catastrophe, yet financing needed for climate adaptation remains woefully inadequate; only about a quarter of all climate finance goes to adaptation.
Global debt is at crisis levels. The Secretary- General’s latest report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) paints a dismal and disturbing picture of the state of play of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The SDGs are at real risk of not being achieved. Our current systems and institutions, conceived for Second World War recovery, are straining under the weight of today’s crises. In truth, they are broken and stand impotent in the face of the three Cs: COVID-19, climate and conflict. And, yes, our people and our planet are paying the price.
How do we fix that? We need a full-scale, bold reimagining of the global financial architecture, and no more tinkering at the edges to conceive additional programmes that are based on the same false logic — it simply does not work.
Public-sector expenditure on climate-caused loss and damage cannot continue to be classified according to fiscal orthodoxy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is largely devoid of ways to quantify consequential climate impacts on public debt and countries’ capacity
to pay. The obstinate focus of international financial institutions on primary balances and debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratios ignores the empirical evidence that nature is in revolt. Incredibly, a recent analysis revealed that of the 80 IMF-funded country programmes around the world, climate was central to the country assessment in only a single case — that of Samoa.
We need a new global financial architecture that has the willingness and capacity to identify systemic threats, such as debt and climate risk, and devise tools that are commensurate to the challenges. We urgently need a new global financial architecture dedicated to achieving the SDGs and net-zero emissions and to building resilience. We need a new global financial architecture that incorporates an effective global financial safety net with the capacity to respond to today’s multiple, simultaneous and escalating crises. We need a global financial architecture for today’s challenges that is responsive to the current needs of States, especially the vulnerable countries, many of which were not Member States in the 1940s.
Belize has, within its limited fiscal space, tried to stimulate an economic recovery while staying true to its social values. The Belizean economy grew by 5.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year, the highest level of production for any first quarter on record. Through an innovative debt-for-nature swap, Belize reduced its debt-to-GDP ratio from 133 per cent to 108 per cent last year, resulting in more than $250 million in debt- service savings.
My Government has instituted an amnesty programme to enable up to 40,000 qualifying persons to be regularized. We anticipate that by the end of the amnesty we will have regularized more migrants per capita than any other country. But forces at the global level are determined to diminish our aspiration to an economic rebound and underwrite our social and human development and resilience. Three critical issues must be addressed by a new global financial architecture in order to achieve transformative and systemic solutions.
The financing needs of developing countries have increased significantly since we adopted the 2030 Agenda. The international financial institutions and multilateral development banks have failed to meet the needs of developing countries. The figures do not lie. The truth is that the financing needs of developing countries amount to $4.3 trillion — more than quadruple the lending capacity of the IMF and well above the lending trends of the World Bank, which loaned only $99 billion last year. The availability of affordable, long-term and dependable sources of financing is indispensable to the achievement of the SDGs and climate resilience.
We need international financial institutions that will urgently align their policies and practices with the achievement of the SDGs and climate goals and redistribute liquidity to developing countries. We need a long-overdue expansion in quota allocations to expand the resources of the IMF. We need the multilateral development banks and regional banks to provide considerably more longer-term financing, de-risk investment, support the development of capital markets and integrate sustainability objectives to enable the use of innovative instruments. Financing must be accessible and affordable to vulnerable countries.
Amazingly, in the past seven years financial flows to small island developing States (SIDS) have declined. Net official development assistance declined from $6.2 billion in 2016 to $4.1 billion in 2018. The paradox is that the countries most vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters, and with the least fiscal capacity to adapt and recover, do not qualify for grant and concessionary financing. And the fact that since 2008 the Group of 20 (G-20) nations have printed $25 trillion in stimulus money magnifies that paradox.
We therefore call on international financial institutions, multilateral development banks and development partners to use the multidimensional vulnerability index after its finalization later this year. That will unlock financing for vulnerable countries, supporting their efforts to achieve the SDGs, adapt to climate change and build resilience. Public debt is at unprecedented levels globally. It has surpassed the 2008 financial crisis levels. Commercial banks and private investors hold about $54 trillion in the global sovereign debts of emerging markets. That debt deluge is attributable to the inaccessibility of concessional financing, the impact of the pandemic, the costs of climate change and disaster recovery, other external shocks and, for SIDS, structural features related to their small size.
The current tentative, reactionary and piecemeal approach to addressing the debt problem has proven hopelessly ineffective. We must break the pernicious cycle between debt and climate and disaster risk. The international financial institutions must incorporate climate risk into debt sustainability tools. We need a two-pronged response. First, debt relief is needed for all vulnerable countries. Secondly, we need to rapidly mainstream innovative policies that tackle debt repayment capacity and avoid excessive indebtedness. In the current circumstances, there is a compelling need for urgency to advance a multilateral sovereign debt restructuring mechanism.
History — a cruel history — is repeating itself. For centuries, colonialism transported trillions in plundered wealth to the oppressors. Reparations are overdue. I now ask how much longer the new climate colonialism will continue punishing the victims and sparing the victimizers?
Speaking of injustices, it is shameful that a unilateral, illegal and immoral commercial and financial embargo continues to be imposed on Cuba, in defiance of the international community and United Nations resolutions. The cruel sanctions visited on the Cuban people were not eased as they suffered the wrath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even now, as the effects of the fires in Matanzas cause hardship, there appears to be no possibility of an easing. Belize repeats its call for the immediate lifting of the embargo and salutes the resilience and fortitude of the Cuban people.
We stand with them.
Belize continues to be gravely concerned about the spiralling deterioration of the situation in Haiti. We call on the international community to advance a robust and comprehensive programme of support for the Haitian people.
Taiwan, an exemplary nation in many respects, continues to be excluded from the international community, unable to participate and contribute to functional multilateral cooperation. The challenges confronting humankind today require the full participation of all countries and peoples in the struggle for development and prosperity. The outdated policy imposed on Taiwan to promote its exclusion must yield to the greater good. Belize calls for Taiwan to take its rightful place among the international community of nations.
I also reiterate Belize’s full support for the realization of an independent Palestinian State, within its 1967 borders, with all attendant rights, including the recognition of East Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return. The people of Palestine continue to suffer the indignities of illegal occupation and apartheid. It is a disturbing prospect that the world’s sacred promise to deliver a two-State solution is slipping from their grasp.
Justice is the cornerstone of peace. In that spirit, Belize and Guatemala have been pursuing the peaceful, just and final resolution of Guatemala’s claim to Belizean territory before the International Court of Justice. We continue to count on the support of the international community as the judicial process proceeds and, when it concludes, for the demarcation exercise to be carried out. In the meantime, we must redouble our efforts to manage the daily challenges that arise along the border areas, in accordance with the 2005 confidence-building measures. Additionally, now more than ever we need to conclude a Sarstoon protocol, a cooperation mechanism that would help to prevent unnecessary incidents in that area.
We had great expectations for the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow. COP26 was considered a make-or- break moment for the world’s leaders to make more ambitious pledges to keep the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C within reach. We were wrong. Rather than getting global commitments to keep the 1.5°C goal alive, we left Glasgow with commitments that will see the global temperature increase by 2.7°C by 2100. That is utterly unacceptable and morally unjust. Our people will continue to suffer for something that we did not cause. Rather than meeting the commitments to delivering $100 billion annually, we left Glasgow with a finance road map — yet another paper promise. Rather than delivering a loss and damage facility to help our countries deal with the losses and damages caused by climate change, we left with mas palabras. In the meantime, Belize continues to suffer from climate-related damages equivalent to 4 per cent of its GDP annually — among the highest in the world.
Let us try this again. We need less talk and more decisions at the next two climate-related conferences. The fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to be held in Montreal, must agree an ambitious and effective post- 2020 global biodiversity framework to take into account
the economic costs of biodiversity loss and provide financial support for developing countries’ efforts to deter it. At COP27 in Egypt, the G-20 must bring new commitments to closing the emissions gap, bring the financing for adaptation and establish a financing facility to substantively address loss and damage. We are extremely concerned that those expectations may be jeopardized by G-20 dynamics, but we cannot allow backsliding — achieving anything less will be a failure.
For Belize and SIDS, failure is not an option. The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency are the most catastrophic events since the Second World War. Then as now, a new vision, frameworks and instruments are required to achieve the sustainable and inclusive future that our people and future generations deserve. The near-term global economic outlook compels us to act with urgency to avert even worse humanitarian and development outcomes and to restore stability to the international system.
Our failure to act decisively and urgently on COVID-19, conflict and climate condemns humankind and our planet irreversibly to disaster. History will not absolve us if we fail. Our collective destiny and future inspire us to action. The aspirations of our people must be fulfilled. We know what to do. We have the resources to meet the needs of humankind. We must find the political will to act. We must act now to avert disaster and fulfil the promise of tomorrow. We ask for the guidance of our Creator in order to ensure that our work is not in vain.