Latin American and Caribbean nations address Climate Change Negotiations at Unity Summit in Mexico
- Felipe Calderon, President of Mexico, during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 28 Jan. 2010
23 February 2010, Riviera Maya, Mexico
On 23 February 2010, Presidents and high-ranking representatives of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries gathered at the Unity Summit in Riviera Maya, Mexico, including Cuba's President Raúl Castro Ruz, Haiti's President René Préval, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Colombia's President Álvaro Uribe. Among other things, leaders discussed the prospects of climate change negotiations at this event.
The resulting agreement reached by 25 Heads of State and Government underlines that the fight against climate changes includes sustainable environmental management of forests and other key ecosystems such as wetlands; energy efficiency and the development of new, renewable energy sources, the transformation of transport systems; as well as scientific and technological innovation.
The Summit Declaration further notes that this fight can only be sustainable if the implementation respects people’s and communities’ rights. It also commits to promote a predictable, transparent, effective financial mechanism under the UNFCCC that will ensure the proper supply of new, additional, sufficient international financial flows to support the mitigation and adaptation efforts of the region. Leaders further agreed to support transparent and inclusive negotiations at the the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the UNFCCC in Mexico, stressing that the COP 16 results must be legally binding as a decisive step in the fight against climate change.
Finally, leaders agreed to create a new organization, based on the same principles as the Rio Group and compromised of all states in the region. The rules of the new organization, which has yet to be named, will be discussed and created at the next summit on July 2011 in Venezuela.
“We are showing the world that despite our legitimate and understandable differences, Latin American and Caribbean nations have decided to unite, find the mechanisms for understanding each other and resolve our differences. And we are quite clear that there are far more things that identify and link us than those that divide and separate us,” said Mexican President Felipe Calderón during the Summit.