The Climate Crisis Demands a New Financial System: Colombia

On Tuesday, Colombian Vice President Francia Marquez advocated a reform of the international financial system that allows developing countries to face the climate crisis.

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"The lack of political will to act is not the real problem. We do not have sufficient resources to meet the planetary challenge. That is the underlying problem," she said when speaking at the first Africa Climate Summit (ACS).

"We cannot deal with this crisis with the same rules and regulations of an international financial system that has a colonial vision, whereby the richest sustain themselves in their economies based on the exploitation of the most impoverished," Marquez pointed out.

She invited the African leaders and heads of international organizations to establish a multilateral agreement for the transformation of this financial system.

Colombia proposes the use of the "debt swap for climate action", a mechanism that consists of voluntary transactions through which a creditor cancels or reduces a country's debt in exchange for it assuming environmental commitments.

Marquez was also in favor of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issuing bonds that help create "a great global fund" to help developing countries.

"It is not enough for us to take action in the Global South if the Global North does not take up the challenge of curbing greenhouse gas emissions," she said after meeting with Kenyan Vice President Rigathi Gachagua and the Comoros President Azali Assoumani.

The summit will end with the adoption of the "Nairobi Declaration", through which African leaders want to build a unified perspective towards the COP28 climate summit, the United Nations General Assembly, the Group of Twenty (G20 ) and international financial institutions.