Cuban representative to COP30, Vice Prime Minister Eduardo Martínez, emphasized the need for a fairer approach toward Island States to help them achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. He stated that the biggest obstacle facing the Caribbean nation in meeting its sustainability commitments is the financial blockade imposed by the United States.
00:00And also, Your Excellencies, I'm here present today in order to participate in this work, in order to recover our country with our collaboration with our brothers from Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Bahamas.
00:22They also suffer the hurricane, which is showing that climate change is real, Your Excellencies.
00:32We are here to celebrate that COP30 will be here in Latin America, near the Caribbean, in the Amazon,
00:45where we have the most complex ecosystems of the world and a place to renew our willingness and also our efforts to international cooperation in order to face climate change.
01:03We should recognize that the global response to climate change happens in this context that is not favorable.
01:12So the causes that originated the current crisis do not disappear.
01:17On the contrary, we have seen this in unsustainable consumption patterns.
01:26We can see inequality and the privilege of the elite coming from a colonial past.
01:34But then nowadays, we can see the inequality among our nations and fracturing what we have achieved in Rio 1992,
01:47where Brazil is very proud of it in establishing this relationship between the development and the environment.
01:59With this, we abandon the obligations and now we can see the peoples of the world,
02:12the nations that less contribute to climate change and what is happening.
02:17also weakening the multilateral system where we do not condemn the absence of the government of the United States in the Paris Agreement.
02:31And also these developed countries increasing their weapons have been also war plans when the countries of the south were facing the situation of not fulfilling the Paris Agreement.
02:54So we want to overcome the poverty conditions and also the inequality but without having the international support.
03:03And the current international order requires changes, fast changes, and their financial institutions,
03:10they are reproducing this old-fashioned model which do not correspond to the needs of the present.
03:17And also against the principle which where we can see international cooperation with this goal.
03:26So we should abandon the direct access and expanding the funding including for islands, development islands that we can see their vulnerabilities.
03:46So Cuba has this commitment with this multilateral system with the process under the Convention and Paris Agreement.
03:56So in this sense, our country presented our transparency report and also updating our national contribution.
04:05And the biggest challenge to implement our national contribution, strengthening, we can see the financial blockade of the government of the United States against Cuba,
04:20including their actions against the willingness of others to cooperate with our country.
04:27Of course, this blockage that has been condemned by the majority of the General Assembly of the United Nations, it's an obstacle for our development.
04:39So we should have a world without protectionist and without unilateralism.
04:45So we should mobilize political willingness in order to revert current inequalities and to provide the necessary conditions in order to amplify the implementation of our actions, our climate actions,
05:00actions as was mentioned by Fidel Castro in the conference of Rio in 1992.
05:07And I'd like to mention we should and selfishness and also the lack of sensitivity.
05:18Because tomorrow will be too late to do what we have done in the past.
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