LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA, President of Brazil, said the international community’s failure to respond to global crises “shows a weakening of our collective capacity for negotiation and dialogue”.  Even the Pact for the Future is limited in scope.  Following the COVID‑19 pandemic, no treaty on pandemics was adopted at the World Health Organization (WHO).  “We are living in a time of growing anguish, frustration, tension and fear,” he continued, noting that conflicts and military budgets have ballooned as “the use of force, not supported by international law, is becoming the rule.” Brazil has firmly condemned the invasion of Ukraine and, together with China, has tried to encourage constructive dialogue between the parties as part of the “six-point plan”.  In Gaza and the West Bank, one of the greatest humanitarian crises in recent history risks spillover into Lebanon.  “What began as a terrorist action by fanatics against innocent Israeli civilians has become a collective punishment for the entire Palestinian people,” he said, with more than 40,000 deaths, mostly women and children.  “The right to defence has become the right to vengeance, which prevents an agreement for the release of hostages and postpones the ceasefire.”  Meanwhile the world forgets conflicts in Sudan and Yemen, which cause suffering for nearly 30 million people.

Turning to climate change, he stressed that “we are doomed to climate change interdependence”.  The planet will “demand payment” from future generations from unfulfilled climate agreements, and denialism is contradicted by the facts:  2024 will be the hottest year on record, environmental disasters wreak destruction worldwide and his country has seen the biggest flood since 1941 and the worst drought in the Amazon in 45 years.  Brazil does not tolerate environmental crimes.  Deforestation in the Amazon has been reduced by 50 per cent, and it will be eradicated by 2030.  Moreover, the country will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2025.  Today, the country has one of the cleanest energy mixes worldwide, with 90 per cent from renewable resources.  Brazilians have defended against messianic and totalitarian attacks and toppled dictators. Democracy must respond to the legitimate aspirations of those who reject hunger, inequality, unemployment and isolationism, he said, underscoring that neither “false patriots and isolationists” nor “ultra-liberal experiments” further impoverishing an already-poor continent will help citizens.

The future of our region depends on building sustainable, inclusive States and addressing discrimination, he said, free from intimidation by corporations or digital platforms holding themselves above the law.  “Freedom is the first victim of a world with no rules,” he warned, stressing that new technologies, including AI, must respect human rights and be a tool of peace — not war – and calling for an intergovernmental authority on AI wherein all countries have a seat.  Additionally, the current state of the world financial infrastructure disadvantages low- and middle-income countries, limiting investment in health, education and climate change.  It has become a “Marshall Plan in reverse where the poorest finance the richest”.  African countries borrow at rates up to eight times higher than Germany and four times higher than the United States.  Calling for greater participation of developing countries in the management of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, he highlighted that while the five richest billionaires — and the super-rich paying proportionally less taxes than the working class — have doubled their fortunes, 60 per cent of humanity has become poorer.  In response, Brazil has insisted on developing minimal global taxation standards.

At the same time, more than 9 per cent — 733 million people — of the world’s population are undernourished.  Hunger is a result of political choice, he said, noting that more than enough food exists in the world to end the scourge.  For its part, his Government has committed to ending hunger in Brazil, as it did in 2014.  The Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, which will launch in Rio de Janeiro in November, was born from this political will and solidarity — a result of the Brazilian G20 presidency.  Finally, calling for urgent UN reform, he suggested, among other proposals, that the Economic and Social Council be the main forum for sustainable development, that the Security Council revisit its working methods and veto powers and that it cease excluding Latin American and African countries from holding permanent seats — an unacceptable echo of a colonial past.  “We cannot wait for another world tragedy, like the Second World War, to only then build a new governance on its rubbles.  The will of the majority can persuade those who cling to the raw expression of the mechanisms of power.”