World leaders must move away from rhetoric

Sep 24, 2008 News

– President Bharrat Jagdeo tells UN

Addressing the Sixty Third (63rd) Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York yesterday, President Bharrat Jagdeo pointed to the sternest test in recent memory confronting the global financial system.
He said that the current crisis is systematic in nature and historic in scale and global in reach.
He added that it comes at a time when the world economy is fighting rapid escalation and the highest real levels ever recorded in fuel and food prices.

President Bharrat Jagdeo addresses the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday. AP Photo by Julie Jacobson

“Together with the world’s belated attention to the devastating economic and social implications of climate change, these developments define the agenda before global institutions and national leaders today. They make the theme for this year’s debate both timely and necessary,” he asserted.
President Jagdeo contended that given the gravity and urgency of the issues before the Assembly, leaders must be careful not to conduct this year’s debate in the customary rhetorical manner.
“We must each, as countries approaching the floor to speak, be prepared to account for the pledges we have previously made.
“We must also be bold enough to embark on a project to achieve real change to the multilateral system. This change must be based on mandates that are relevant, institutions that are accountable, and a context that is increasingly reflective of integration and interconnectedness.”
Commenting on the mortgage crisis in the United States, President Jagdeo said that an episode that manifested itself merely two years ago as a moderate decline in the housing market in some parts of the US, and which evolved into difficulties for US subprime mortgage market, has now grown into a rapidly deepening systematic financial crisis of global proportions.
The Head of State also touched on the issue of the rise in price for crude oil, which he noted has resulted in the rise in price for food.
He said that since statistics are showing that global demand for food is expected to double by 2030, then measures for the short and longer term supply, including increased productivity and transfer of technology, must be adopted and implemented urgently by the international community to stave off widespread starvation.
He emphasized the need for the international community to acknowledge the inextricable link between agricultural development and food security and pointed to the World Bank’s warning that priority be given to the agricultural sector in the development process if the MDGs of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized.
Climate Change
Climate change was another issue addressed by President Jagdeo in his address to the UN General Assembly.
Here, he said future generations demand that this concern be translated into rapid action.
“The climate change challenge will not slow down to meet the pace set by the UN. Our response must speed up to meet the pace of climate change. The facts are straight forward; if we are to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown, we need to stabilize annual greenhouse gas emissions at about two tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita by 2050,” he stated.
He noted, however, that there have been some promising signs on the issue with a US$60 billion carbon market emerging from the Kyoto Protocol.
“But although common sense dictates that these financial flows should be proportional to the problem being addressed, the bulk of this money stays within the developed world.”
He took the opportunity to speak on his Climate Change initiative and the need for the country to receive capital flows to address tropical deforestation.

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