COP28: Colombia proposes debt exchange for climate action

Colombia will insist on the debt swap for climate action and nature at the next summit United Nations about him climate change (COP28) to be held in Dubai, attended by a delegation led by the president Gustavo Petro.

This was reported this Monday by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development when establishing the position that the Andean country will take to that forum in which Petro will reaffirm the proposal that it has already made in other international settings.

“The debt swap agenda for climate action and nature has been clearly established as a joint agreement” regional type ahead of the Dubai climate summit, said the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhamad, quoted in a statement.

Petro’s proposal seeks the issuance of special drawing rights, through the International Monetary Fund (IMF)so that they can be allocated to the Climate Fund and thus free up space in the budgets of countries mainly vulnerable to climate change in order to face its effects in terms of adaptation and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

This is in line with what was established at the XXIII Meeting of the Forum of Ministers of the Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean, a preparatory meeting for the COP28 held in Panama at the end of last October.

COP28 will take place from November 30 to December 12 at Expo City Dubai, where heads of State and Government, representatives of the private sector, academics, experts, youth, indigenous, and non-governmental organizations will meet to accelerate the search of climate solutions.

Colombia, climate standard bearer

The Colombian initiative on “the need for early warning systems to cover the entire population of Latin America and to recognize the vulnerability of populations to climate change,” as the minister said at the end of that meeting.

Minister Muhamad said at the time that this allows Colombia arrive as a consolidated Latin American bloc in the climate negotiations of the COP28.

“This year we hope to further amplify our position in the face of the planet’s urgent need to combat climate change. “We believe that the global efforts and results around this fight have not been sufficiently ambitious compared to the magnitude of the emergency we face,” Muhammad pointed out.

The minister added that it is necessary ““Let this fight be collective because it is life on the planet that is at stake.”