Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez:
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, Excellencies, friends, I promise
that I will not talk more than most have spoken this afternoon. Allow
me an initial comment which I would have liked to make as part of the
previous point which was expressed by the delegations of Brazil, China,
India, and Bolivia. We were there asking to speak but it was not
possible. Bolivia's representative said, my salute of course to Comrade
President Evo Morales, who is there, President of the Republic of
Bolivia.
[Audience applause]
She said among other things the following, I noted it here, she said the text presented is not democratic, it is not inclusive.
I
had hardly arrived and we were just sitting down when we heard the
president of the previous session, the minister, saying that a document
came about, but nobody knows, I've asked for the document, but we still
don’t have it, I think nobody knows of that top secret document.
Now
certainly, as the Bolivian comrade said, that is not democratic, it is
not inclusive. Now, ladies and gentlemen, isn’t that just the reality
of the world?
Are we in a democratic world? Is the global system inclusive? Can we
hope for something democratic, inclusive from the current global system?
What we are experiencing on this planet is an imperial dictatorship,
and from here we continue denouncing it. Down with imperial
dictatorship! And long live the people and democracy and equality on
this planet!
[Audience applause]
And what we see here is a reflection of this: Exclusion.
There is a group of countries that consider themselves superior to us
in the South, to us in the Third World, to us, the underdeveloped
countries, or as a great friend Eduardo Galeano says, we, the crushed
countries, as if a train ran over us in history.
In
light of this, it’s no surprise that there is no democracy in the world
and here we are again faced with powerful evidence of global imperial
dictatorship. Then two youths got up here, fortunately the enforcement
officials were decent, some push around, and they collaborated right?
There are many people outside, you know? Of course, they do not fit in
this room, they are too many people. I've read in the news that there
were some arrests, some intense protests, there in the streets of
Copenhagen, and I salute all those people out there, most of them youth.
[Audience applause]
Of
course young people are concerned, I think rightly much more than we
are, for the future of the world. We have - most of us here - the sun
on our backs, and they have to face the sun and are very worried.
One
could say, Mr. President, that a spectre is haunting Copenhagen, to
paraphrase Karl Marx, the great Karl Marx, a spectre is haunting the
streets of Copenhagen, and I think that spectre walks silently through
this room, walking around among us, through the halls, out below, it
rises, this spectre is a terrible spectre almost nobody wants to
mention it: Capitalism is the spectre, almost nobody wants to mention
it.
[Audience applause]
It’s capitalism, the people roar, out there, hear them.
I
have been reading some of the slogans painted on the streets, and I
think those slogans of these youngsters, some of which I heard when I
was young, and of the young woman there, two of which I noted. You can
hear among others, two powerful slogans. One: Don’t change the climate,
change the system.
[Audience applause]
And
I take it onboard for us. Let’s not change the climate, let’s change
the system! And consequently we will begin to save the planet.
Capitalism is a destructive development model that is putting an end to
life; it threatens to put a definitive end to the human species.
And
another slogan calls for reflection. It is very in tune with the
banking crisis that swept the world and still affects it, and of how
the rich northern countries gave aid to bankers and the big banks. The
U.S. alone gave, well, I lost the figure, but it is astronomical, to
save the banks. They say in the streets the following: If the climate
were a bank it would have been saved already.
[Audience applause]
And I think that's true. If the climate were one of the biggest capitalist banks, the rich governments would have saved it.
I
think Obama has not arrived. He received the Nobel Peace Prize almost
the same day that he sent 30 thousand soldiers to kill more innocents
in Afghanistan, and now he comes to stand here with the Nobel Peace
Prize, the president of the United States.
But
the United States has the machinery to make money, to make dollars, and
has saved, well, they believe they have saved the banks and the
capitalist system.
Well, this is a side comment that I wanted to make previously. We were
raising our hand to accompany Brazil, India, Bolivia, China, in their
interesting position that Venezuela and the countries of the Bolivarian
Alliance firmly share. But hey, they didn’t let us speak, so do not
count these minutes please, Mr. President.
[Audience applause]
Look,
over there I met, I had the pleasure of meeting this French author
Hervé Kempf. Recommending this book, I recommend it, it is available in
Spanish – there is Hervé - its also in French, and surely in English, How the Rich are Destroying the Planet. Hervé Kempf: How the Rich are Destroying the Planet.
This is what Christ said: it would be easier for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven. This is what our lord Christ said.
[Audience applause]
The
rich are destroying the planet. Do they think the can go to another
when they destroy this one? Do they have plans to go to another planet?
So far there is none on the horizon of the galaxy.
This
book has just reached me, Ignacio Ramonet gave it to me, and he is also
around somewhere in this room. Finishing the prologue or the preamble
this phrase is very important, Kempf says the following, I’ll read it:
“We
can not reduce global material consumption if we don’t make the
powerful go down several levels, and if we don’t combat inequality. It
is necessary that to the ecological principle that is so useful at the
time of becoming conscious, ‘think globally and act locally,’ we add
the principle that the situation imposes: ‘Consume less and share
better.’”
I think it is good advice that this French author Hervé Kempf gives us.
[Audience applause]
Well
then, Mr. President, climate change is undoubtedly the most devastating
environmental problem of this century. Floods, droughts, severe storms,
hurricanes, melting ice caps, rise in mean sea levels, ocean
acidification and heat waves, all of that sharpens the impact of global
crisis besetting us.
Current
human activity exceeds the threshold of sustainability, endangering
life on the planet, but also in this we are profoundly unequal.
I
want to recall: the 500 million richest people, 500 million, this is
seven percent, seven percent, seven percent of the world’s population.
This seven percent is responsible, these 500 million richest people are
responsible for 50 percent of emissions, while the poorest 50 percent
accounts for only seven percent of emissions.
So
it strikes me as a bit strange to put the United States and China at
the same level. The United States has just, well; it will soon reach
300 million people. China has nearly five times the U.S. population.
The United Status consumes more than 20 million barrels of oil a day,
China only reaches 5-6 million barrels a day, you can’t ask the same of
the United States and China.
There
are issues to discuss, hopefully we the heads of states and governments
can sit down and discuss the truth, the truth about these issues.
So,
Mr. President, 60 percent of the planet’s ecosystems are damaged, 20
percent of the earth's crust is degraded, we have been impassive
witnesses to deforestation, land conversion, desertification,
deterioration of fresh water systems, overexploitation of marine
resources, pollution and loss of biodiversity.
The
overuse of the land exceeds by 30 percent the capacity to regenerate
it. The planet is losing what the technicians call the ability to
regulate itself; the planet is losing this. Every day more waste than
can be processed is released. The survival of our species hammers in
the consciousness of humanity. Despite the urgency, it has taken two
years of negotiations for a second commitment period under the Kyoto
Protocol, and we attend this event without any real and meaningful
agreement.
And
indeed, on the text that comes from out of the blue, as some have
called it, Venezuela says, and the ALBA countries, the Bolivarian
Alliance say that we will not accept, since then we’ve said it, any
other texts that do not come from working groups under the Kyoto
Protocol and the Convention. They are the legitimate texts that we have
been discussing so intensely over the years.
[Audience applause]
And
in these last few hours, I believe you have not slept, plus you have
not eaten, you have not slept. It does not seem logical to me to come
out now with a document from scratch, as you say.
The
scientifically substantiated objective of reducing the emission of
polluting gases and achieving an agreement on long-term cooperation
clearly, today at this time, has apparently failed, for now.
What is the reason? We have no doubt.
The
reason is the irresponsible attitude and lack of political will from
the most powerful nations on the planet. No one should feel offended, I
recall the great José Gervasio Artigas when he said: “With the truth, I
neither offend nor fear.” But it is actually an irresponsible attitude
of positions, of reversals, of exclusions, of elitist management of a
problem that belongs to everyone and that we can only solve together.
The
political conservatism and selfishness of the largest consumers, of the
richest countries shows high insensitivity and lack of solidarity with
the poor, the hungry, and the most vulnerable to disease, to natural
disasters. Mr. President, a new and single agreement is essential,
applicable to absolutely unequal parties, according to the magnitude of
their contributions and economic, financial and technological
capabilities and based on unconditional respect for the principles
contained in the Convention.
Developed
countries should set binding, clear and concrete commitments for the
substantial reduction of their emissions and assume obligations of
financial and technological assistance to poor countries to cope with
the destructive dangers of climate change. In this respect, the
uniqueness of island states and least developed countries should be
fully recognized.
Mr.
President, climate change is not the only problem facing humanity
today. Other scourges and injustices beset us, the gap between rich and
poor countries has continued to grow, despite all the millennium goals,
the Monterrey financing summit, at all these summits as the President
of Senegal said here, revealing a great truth, there are promises and
unfulfilled promises and the world continues its destructive march.
The
total income of the 500 richest individuals in the world is greater
than the income of the 416 million poorest people. The 2.8 billion
people living in poverty on less than $2 per day, representing 40 per
percent of the global population, receive only 5 percent of world
income.
Today
each year about 9.2 million children die before reaching their fifth
year and 99.9 percent of these deaths occur in poorer countries.
Infant
mortality is 47 deaths per thousand live births, but is only 5 per
thousand in rich countries. Life expectancy on the planet is 67 years,
in rich countries it is 79, while in some poor nations is only 40 years.
Additionally,
there are 1.1 billion people without access to drinking water, 2.6
billion without sanitation services, over 800 million illiterate and
1.02 billion hungry people, that’s the global scenario.
Now the cause, what is the cause?
Let’s
talk about the cause, let’s not evade responsibilities, and let’s not
evade the depth of this problem. The cause, undoubtedly, I return to
the theme of this whole disastrous panorama, is the destructive
metabolic system of capital and its embodied model: Capitalism.
Here’s
a quote that I want to read briefly, from that great liberation
theologian Leonardo Boff, as we know a Brazilian, our American.
Leonardo Boff says on this subject as follows:
“What
is the cause? Ah, the cause is the dream of seeking happiness through
material accumulation and of endless progress, using for this science
and technology with which they can exploit without limits all the
resources of the earth.”
And
he cites here Charles Darwin and his “natural selection”, the survival
of the fittest, but we know that the strongest survive over the ashes
of the weakest.
Jean
Jacques Rousseau, we must always remember, said that between the strong
and the weak, freedom is oppressed. That’s why the Empire speaks of
freedom; it’s the freedom to oppress, to invade, to kill, to
annihilate, and to exploit. That is their freedom, and Rousseau adds
this saving phrase: “Only the law liberates.”
There
are countries that are hoping that no document comes out of here
precisely because they do not want a law, do not want a standard,
because the absence of these norms allows them to play at their
exploitative freedom, their crushing freedom.
