Climate Change. Special Publication.

Bolivarian Government of Venezuela

Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs Office of The Deputy Minister for Africa

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya Concurrent to Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia

Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP)and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (ONU Habitat).

Climate Change A Special Publication

Speeches By: President Hugo Chávez at the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark December 16th, 2009.

President Nicolás Maduro at the UN Climate Change Summit, UN Headquaters, New York, USA, September 23rd, 2014.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Delcy Rodriguez Gómez at the Environmental Meeting of CELAC, Quito, Ecuador November 6th, 2015.

CORDINATOR: Professor Jhony Balza Arismendi, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the Republic of Kenya and Permanent Representative to UNEP and UN - Habitat.

CONTRIBUTOR: Sara PĂŠrez CONTACT INFORMATION: UN Crescent, Opposite Diplomatic Police, Gigiri, Nairobi Kenya P. O. Box 2437- 00621 Tel: (+254 - 20) 712 06 . 48 / 712 06 . 49 email: bulletin.nairobi@gmail.com Website: kenia.embajada.gob.ve DESIGN / PRINTING:

By Smiling Miles Ventures smilingmilesventures@gmail.com 0733 442 714

BULLE

Volume 3, Issue 3

COVER PICTURE

The cover picture shows liberator Bolívar, former president Chávez and president Maduro.

Editor's Comment

The Homeland of Bolivar, Chávez & Maduro Should be Respected

Before anything else, preserve life on the planet, Editor's comment 3 there is no other option.

Bolivarian Government of Venezuela

Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs Office of The Deputy Minister for Africa

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya Concurrent to Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia

Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP)and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (ONU Habitat).

The time has come5 for the international Communique community to give the planet, nature, a fresh opportunity to Petrocaribe Energy11 for Union live.From November 30 to December this year Paris will host the 21st United Nations Conference on Climate Change Jamaica letter 6 (COP21).

It is timeoftoBolívar start a new model of civilization if we Homeland Chávez want to be consistent with the rights and Maduro 8 of the Earth and nature.

The time has come to open more roads and alternatives to prevent capitalism from continuing to be the fundamental detonator that threatens the 21st century.

Venezuela Colombia These are times for border us to fight for another future situation 10 warming advances for it is increasingly evident that global inexorably. These are times that merit that we be able to President Maduro’s 2015 forms of domination. eradicate capitalism and its different Speech at UN Headquarters, is time to prevent climate change from being the NewItYork 12-13 most devastating problem of this century. President Hugo Chávez in Copenhagen, in December Fauna, Flora & Oil 16 2009, said... "60% of the ecosystems of the planet are damaged, 20% of the ALBA - TCP 17 Earth's crust is degraded; we have witnessed deforestation, desertification, and done nothing".

The Mediterranean, the common

Grave of migrants 18-19to open roads that Today it has become urgent facilitate the progress of the peoples and together stop the growing deterioration and destruction of the planet. As the 21st United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 21) takes place in Paris we raise our voices to join in the call that President Nicolas Maduro made in September of 2014 at the UN, New York... “nature is giving us key signs of the seriousness of the problem, but the powerful of the world do nothing but attack it systematically."

Venezuela promotes cooperation Today, from these pages,we everyone and solidarity 20 -encourage 22 to leave stagnation, to mobilize and foster the creation of avenues that facilitate the raising of voices to denounce the processes of industrialization of the past two centuries. It is time to deepen the reflection and debate, it is time to demand climate justice and social justice. It is necessary to make an effective demand to fight the economic and political powers (national and international) that generally decide in their own benefit at the expense of the majority of peoples.

The COP21 in Paris represents an opportunity to change the results of those who want to impose the interests of wild capitalism and the international financial system.

The COP21 in Paris represents for the progressive Governments, for the peoples of the world committed to the rights of mother earth, an opportunity to denounce the reductionist view of some who are keen to take climate change as a mere problem of technology, of carbon and temperature, without revealing and denouncing its fundamental cause: the capitalist system and its model of industrialization.

We believe that it is imperative to open pathways to We celebrate more than years harmony with mother earth and the right to life.

Lettwo us avoid since the start of this publication, this is our that future generations hold against us that we did nothing today.

10th issue. We have established as a priority

informing ourCOP21 national Taking advantageour of thereaders proximityofof the in events, together with other tasks Paris, the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in in Kenya delivers publication thatofcontains three historic the aframework bilateralism and documents about the global debate on climate change.

They multilateralism. deal with the reasons that cause this phenomenon, which is not eminently environmental.

Disseminate and promote

about the we Venezuelan Theinformation issue of climate change, insist, must reality be seen is as a consequence of the model strategic of industrialization the past fundamentally and an ofobligatory two centuries,task based on thethe subjugation of human beingsmedia and before world when corporate even of nature. distort and discredit our efforts as a country

Wetohave said it,upit isasimperative to open setalready ourselves independent and roads and seek agreements that are met.

This is no time sovereign country, convinced that forthe hesitation, it is necessary to act and support the call of Pope interests of our people are above any other Francis who in his message to the Global Meeting of Social interest Movements, on 9th July 2015, in Bolivia,said... "The ecologi- . cal crisis, along with the deforestation of much of the Venezuela will remain open, despite biodiversity, can endanger the very existence of the human the ideological war thataction it is for submitted to, to species." This warning is a legitimate the struggle meet the challenges of this historic time. of the peoples.

A few weeksIntensely before the start the COP21 inwe Paris, and of passionately will this diplomatic mission in Kenya issues this publication follow in this effort to disseminate the ideas containing the three interventions of President Hugo Chávez of Maduro human (2014) fulfillment inrecent peaceintervention and freedom.

(2009), Nicolás and the of the Minister of the Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,Delcy Rodriguez Gómez, during the meeting of Jhony Arismendi CELAC on Climate Change, held on Balza November 6th, 2015 in the Bolivarian Quito, Ecuador. TheseAmbassador interventionsofwarn, at different Republic times, about the causes giving to climate ofrise Venezuela in change. the Republic of Kenya, Permanent Representative to the United Opening roads, stimulating new pathways to build awareness and avoid theNations devastating effects that the planet Environment Programme, suffers today is a task of (UNEP) those of and us UN who - take on the Habitat commitments to defend the rights of mother earth. We prefer to make mistakes rather than remain silent. Future generations will not forgive us.

For this reason other roads become necessary...

Before anything, preserve life on the planet, there is no other option.

Prof. Jhony Balza Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya Concurrent to Ruanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, November 11th, 2015

Speech of President Hugo Chávez of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, at the UN Climate Change Summit Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark December 16th, 2009.

“...From the countries that comprise ALBA, the Bolivarian

Alliance, we call, ... in the name of many on this planet, we say to governments and peoples of the Earth, to paraphrase Simón Bolívar, the Liberator: If the destructive nature of capitalism opposes us, let’s fight against it and make it obey us, let’s not wait idly by for the death of humanity.”

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías,

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.

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?

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.

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.

It’s capitalism, the people roar, out there, hear them.

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!

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.

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.

And I take it onboard for us. Let’s not The rich are destroying the planet. Do they change the climate, let’s change the system! And think they can go to another when they destroy this consequently we will begin to save the planet. one? Do they have plans to go to another planet?

Capitalism is a destructive development model So far there is none on the horizon of the galaxy. that is putting an end to life; it threatens to put a This book has just reached me, Ignacio definitive end to the human species.

Ramonet gave it to me, and he is also around And another slogan calls for reflection. somewhere in this room. Finishing the prologue or It is very in tune with the banking crisis that the preamble this phrase is very important, Kempf swept the world and still affects it, and of how says the following, I’ll read it: the rich northern countries gave aid to bankers “We can not reduce global material and the big banks. The U.S. alone gave, well, I consumption if we don’t make the powerful go lost the figure, but it is astronomical, to save the down several levels, and if we don’t combat banks. They say in the streets the following: If inequality. It is necessary that to the ecological the climate were a bank it would have been principle that is so useful at the time of saved already. becoming conscious, ‘think globally and act And I think that's true. If the climate locally,’ we add the principle that the situation were one of the biggest capitalist banks, the rich imposes: ‘Consume less and share better.” governments would have saved it.

I think it is good advice that this French I think Obama has not arrived. He author Hervé Kempf gives us. received the Nobel Peace Prize almost the same Well then, Mr. President, climate change is day that he sent 30 thousand soldiers to kill more undoubtedly the most devastating environmental innocents in Afghanistan, and now he comes to problem of this century. Floods, droughts, severe stand here with the Nobel Peace Prize, the storms, hurricanes, melting ice caps, rise in mean president of the United States. sea levels, ocean acidification and heat waves, all But the United States has the machinery of that sharpens the impact of global crisis to make money, to make dollars, and has saved, besetting us. well, they believe they have saved the banks and Current human activity exceeds the the capitalist system.Well, this is a side comment threshold of sustainability, endangering life on the that I wanted to make previously. We were planet, but also in this we are profoundly unequal. raising our hand to accompany Brazil, India, Bolivia, China, in their interesting position that I want to recall: the 500 million richest Venezuela and the countries of the Bolivarian people, 500 million, this is seven percent, seven Alliance firmly share. But hey, they didn’t let us percent, seven percent of the world’s population. speak, so do not count these minutes please, Mr. This seven percent is responsible, these 500 President. million richest people are responsible for 50 percent of emissions, while the poorest 50 percent Look, over there I met, I had the accounts for only seven percent of emissions. 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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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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: 4

“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.”

How long, we ask from Venezuela, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, how long are we going to allow such injustices and inequalities? How long are we going to tolerate the current international economic order and prevailing market mechanisms? How long are we going to allow huge epidemics like HIV/AIDS to ravage entire populations? How long are we going to allow the hungry to not eat or to be able to feed their own children? How long are we going to allow millions of children to die from curable diseases? How long will we allow armed conflicts to massacre millions of innocent human beings in order for the powerful to seize the resources of other peoples?

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.

We must make an effort and pressure here and in the streets, so that a commitment comes out of here, a document that commits the most powerful countries on earth.

Well, Mr. President, Leonardo Boff asks... Have you met Boff? I do not know whether Leonardo might come, I met him recently in Paraguay, we’ve always read him.

Can a finite earth support an infinite project? The thesis of capitalism, infinite development, is a destructive pattern, let’s face it.

Then Boff asks us, what might we expect from Copenhagen? At least this simple confession: We can not continue like this. And a simple proposition: Let’s change course. Let's do it, but without cynicism, without lies, without double agendas, no documents out of the blue, with the truth out in the open.

Cease the aggressions and the wars! We the peoples of the world ask of the empires, to those who try to continue dominating the world and exploiting us.No more imperial military bases or military coups! Let’s build a more just and equitable economic and social order, let’s eradicate poverty, let’s immediately stop the high emission levels, let’s stop environmental degradation and avoid the great catastrophe of climate change, let’s integrate ourselves into the noble goal of everyone being more free and united.

Mr. President, almost two centuries ago, a universal Venezuelan, a liberator of nations and precursor of consciences left to posterity a full-willed maxim: “If nature opposes us, let’s fight against it and make it obey us.” That was Simón Bolívar, the Liberator.

From Bolivarian Venezuela, where a day like today some ten years ago, ten years exactly, we experienced the biggest climate tragedy in our history (the Vargas tragedy it is called), from this Venezuela whose revolution tries to win justice for all people, we say it is only possible through the path of socialism!

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Socialism, the other spectre Karl Marx spoke about, which walks here too, rather it is like a counter-spectre. Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet, I don’t have the least doubt. Capitalism is the road to hell, to the destruction of the world. We say this from Venezuela, which because of socialism faces threats from the U.S. Empire.

From the countries that comprise ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance, we call, and I want to, with respect, but from my soul, call in the name of many on this planet, we say to governments and peoples of the Earth, to paraphrase Simón Bolívar, the Liberator: If the destructive nature of capitalism opposes us, let’s fight against it and make it obey us, let’s not wait idly by for the death of humanity.

History calls on us to unite and to fight.

If capitalism resists, we are obliged to take up a battle against capitalism and open the way for the salvation of the human species. It’s up to us, raising the banners of Christ, Mohammed, equality, love, justice, humanity, the true and most profound humanism. If we don’t do it, the most wonderful creation of the universe, the human being, will disappear, it will disappear.

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This planet is billions of years old, and this planet existed for billions of years without us, the human species, i.e. it doesn’t need us to exist. Now, without the Earth we will not exist, and we are destroying Pachamama as Evo says, as our indigenous brothers from South America say.

Finally, Mr. President, and to finish, let’s listen to Fidel Castro when he said: “One species is in danger of extinction: Humanity.”

Let’s listen to Rosa Luxemburg when she said: “Socialism or Barbarism.”

Let us listen to Christ the Redeemer when he said: “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, we are capable of not making this Earth the tomb of humanity. Let us make this earth a heaven, a heaven of life, of peace, peace and brotherhood for all humanity, for the human species.

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much and enjoy your meal.

Speech of the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, at the UN Climate Change Summit 2014 New York, USA, September 23, 2014.

“...From our America, ... we stand up in protest and in

indignation before those models that are now trying to call themselves “green economy”... we are children of the Pachamama, and from South America we say: Let us look with respectful voice and eyes, the necessary changes of a model that must be urgently assumed by the whole humanity.”

Nicolás Maduro Moros

We are here today in New York, five years after the largest meeting of world leaders at the UN to discuss the main threat to human survival in this century which is climate change. That meeting took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 119 heads of state and government were present, and I remember it well because I attended as Minister of Foreign Affairs, accompanying our eternal leader Hugo Chávez, who, along with other leaders of the continent, including President Evo Morales, expressed clear and forceful positions representing the voice of our peoples.

Today, climate change continues with more devastating consequences each day, threatening the global destruction of life on the planet and, unfortunately, we still do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. The environmental crisis that we suffer today is defined by an alarming reality, and meanwhile, the factors that lead to the destruction of the planet advance with acceleration and the necessary and unpostponable measures of environmental control have not been taken.

Nature has been giving us clear signals of this grave state of affairs, but the powerful of this world only continue to abuse it systematically. This environmental crisis, the result of human actions, is part above all of the crisis of a model of a capitalist civilization, based on norms of production and consumption that are unsustainable, that produce inequality, injustice, poverty and the destruction of the planet. Capitalism has ignored during decades Nature’s capacity to withstand and to renew, the laws of thermodynamics and entropy.

Within the logic of capitalism, economic growth is incompatible with the survival of the planet. The logic of capital exploitation is simply unsustainable.

Today, 20 percent of the richest countries of capitalism consume 84 percent of the world’s energy, which pollutes the planet and destroys its equilibrium. These polluting world powers have impacted life in the planet in two centuries. These powerful countries are 8

the ones that now want to hoist the banners of environmentalism in order to make more money with pollution by putting a price on emissions and exchanging, in financial terms, the right to pollute this world.We watch in astonishment how those who are principally responsible for climate change and its terrible consequences, do not have the minimum political will to stop and reverse an evil of planetary dimensions generated by the largest economic and financial global corporations.

It is necessary that we cast our memory back. It is now 22 years since George Bush Sr., at the cusp of the imperial arrogance of the unipolar Word, in Rio de Janerio said: “Our lifestyle is not negotiable.” This was in response to those who were demanding concrete actions against climate change that year of 1992. But, exactly 22 years ago, on June 12th, 1992 also in Rio de Janeiro, the Cuban and Latin-American Commander Fidel Castro stated: “An important biological species is at risk of disappearing due to the quick and progressive eradication of its natural life conditions- humans.”

Now we have to take consciousness that, 22 yearsafterwards, this problem has aggravated. If yesterday it was late, it will be soon too late –even if some may be displeased to be reminded of the most conservative scientific predictions, it is still necessary to say it here clearly. We cannot continue under a model of development that affects seriously the conditions of human life and puts in danger the existence of future generations. David Orr, professor of Oberlin College University and advisor to President Barack Obama, said at the beginning of this year the following: “Even much before the climate crisis became the biggest failure of the market that the world has ever seen; it was an enormous political and governmental failure.” He was referring to the idea imposed during the 80s of last century, according to which we should reduce responsibilities of the states up to nothing and the course for capital and markets should be enhanced without limits.

In view of this dark scenario made up of apathy, impotence, concern and indolence, it is more timely than ever to remember our Indo-American wisdom of South America: “Only when the last tree has died, and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will you come to understand that you cannot eat money.�

It is from the point of view of the so-called industrialized world that we have received the proposal that the countries of the South use the so-called green economy. These proposals of the industrialized countries do not only go against the right to development of our countries, but also try to disguise the same capitalist formulas by using the flags of the environmental and ecological movements.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela confirms its commitment to advance in an integral planning that takes into account the three fundamental pillars of ecological sustainable development with a concept of an ecological social economy. Today Venezuela obtains 70 percent of its energy from hydroelectricity and has 60 percent of its territory under some administrative protection. More than 222 protected areas preserve 58 million hectares of forests, including national parks, biosphere reserves and fauna reserves. The conservation of Venezuelan forests represent emission savings of 12,221 million tons of CO2 and have diminished the loss of forests today by more than 50%.

Mr. President, Venezuela had the pleasure to receive in our country the PreCop social delegations; more than 300 delegates from 135 organizations and social movements from 71 countries that approved the Margarita Declaration. Mr. President, it is impossible to dodge the imminent danger -that is what we say in Venezuela- of an ongoing climatic collapse. One of the most evident signs is the terrible phenomenon of climate change, which the great German thinker, Walter Benjamin, predicted as he referred to the domination of capital in the third decade of the 20th century.

How long are they going to receive capitalist proposals and solutions based on the old destructive model as answers to the serious problems that have been created in the last 100 years? Can anyone believe -just to give an eloquent example- that transnational corporations can become the protagonists of the planet’s salvation overnight? Are those who turn human life and nature into merchandize going to accept commitments to change their logic in order to save the planet?

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From our America, Mr. President, we stand up in protest and in indignation before those models that are now trying to call themselves “green economy”.Mr. President, we are children of the Pachamama, and from South America we say: Let us look with respectful voice and eyes, the necessary changes of a model that must be urgently assumed by the whole humanity.

We welcome the call for this meeting on climate change and we repeat what our Commander Chávez said in Copenhagen, let us listen to the voice of the street, the shouts of the people in Copenhagen five years ago still echo when they said: “If we want to change the climate, let us change the system.”

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Let us listen to the voices of the people that marched last Sunday in New York who said: “Action now! No more words!”

From the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, we are committed to continue to defend the right of the peoples to change the system so that we can preserve life on the planet.

Thank you very much, dear friends.

Intervention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez Gómez at the Environmental Meeting of CELAC Quito, Ecuador, November 6th, 2015.

“ ... For thousands of years the planet existed

without the human species, and today we have the responsibility of deciding the future and the existence or otherwise of the human species.”

Delcy Rodriguez Gómez

This is a very important meeting of the CELAC Community because of the participation of Latin America and the Caribbean; but more so, we say, because it is a guide for humanity.

Let us recall that over the last decade we managed to raise the standard of living, which was faught with misery.

This is why ours is rightly considered a region of peace.

And I believe that in this regard it would be more important, beyond the details on the current situation already presented by the Ambassadres of Ecuador during the negotiation, to have a common position, but turned into a doctrine. This, we believe, is important.

In my opinion, the Encyclical of Pope Francis is very significant. It is a historical encyclical on this issue that happens to be our concern. Pope Francis says that the consumeristic model, the capitalist model is immoral, and there is a basic consensus among scientific positions on this matter.

In this regard, from the position adopted at the Summit of the People recently held in Bolivia, and from all of the common positions that we share, we can build a doctrine that we can take to the COP21 in Paris.

It is essential that the causes of this question are properly understood and known, that the principles of the Convention on Climatic Change are observed, especially in what touches on common but differentiated responsibility on the economic debt –also referred to by Pope Francis- of rich 12

countries towards the poor ones, the mechanisms,not only of research but also of adaptation, to deal with the situation that lies ahead for humanity.

We recently said that what we are discussing is not a small matter. They cannot decide on something that concerns the whole of humanity. We are not talking about religion or ideologies; we are talking about the preservation of humankind and this concerns all of us. We, therefore believe that it is appropriate to push for a movement of public opinion, that a movement of public opinion may emerge in our countries, because a decision that concerns the entire humanity cannot be restricted to these spaces, to sensitise the public on the serious risks facing humanity today, about which we cannot just say that it will only be possible to see them one hundred years from now, and this is reality.

Climatic Change and the predatory capitalist impact on the climate is today a reality. We are experiencing it today and what is at stake for the future is the very existence of entire cities, entire populations, is the preservation or otherwise of the human species.

Commander Chavez said during the Copenhagen Summit that the point was not changing the climate, but changing the system.

For thousands of years the planet existed without the human species, and today we have the responsibility of deciding the future and the existence or otherwise of the human species.

Commander Fidel Castro, too, said that what is at stake is the extinction of a species, the human species, and this is the level of awareness we have to take to our people, to the entire international community, to all the peoples of the world.

What is to be decided in Paris is whether there will be regularisation or not, having a mandate, having norms to regulate this sensitive matter. They have to call up the human species in its entirety, not only countries, not only governments; it is the human species, it is a call to the human species.

In Venezuela we work for CELAC to go to the meeting with a common position, with a uniform position. But beyond this common position we aim to build a doctrine that is a human doctrine, a doctrine called to preserve, I insist again, to preserve the human species.

Thank you very much.

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‘‘ ... These are times to compete for another future as it continues growing evidence that global warming progresses inexorably. These are times that we deserve to be able to eradicate capitalism and its various forms of domination.’’

‘‘ Once capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity... it even puts at risk our common home, sister and mother earth.’’

Pope Francis, at the second World Meeting of Popular Movements, Bolivia.

9th July 2015

Turkana