"Pulling up people, while cooling the planet down" - Improving people's living conditions and cooling the planet at the same time: this is how we can summarize the commitment required by UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in its latest Report 2019, presented on 25 September in the Vatican, in the Marconi Hall of Vatican Radio
The theme of this year's report is Financing a Global Green New Deal and aims to combine new ecological responses to the many emergencies linked to climate change with policies capable of curbing the ever-increasing social inequalities.
During the presentation, moderated by the journalist Fausta Speranza, Dr. Penelope Hawkins, Senior Official for Economic Affairs of the Debt Analysis and Finance Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies of UNCTAD, expressly confirmed the report's findings, namely that the resources to implement a change of course at world level are both substantial and available.
Dr. Piergiuseppe Fortunato, Official for Economic Affairs at UNCTAD, added that there is an urgent need for an international agreement - a major Marshall plan - to promote major investments to revitalize the economy with public investment and to deal with climate emergencies, promoting a decarbonisation of global production and, at the same time, reduce inequalities.
Cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, Prefect, opened the gathering saying that In Laudato Si’ the Pope firstly presents the dramatic social and ecological situation of our common home, saying: “….we need only take a frank look at the facts to see that our common home is falling into serious despair” (LS. 61). It is the poor who pay the highest price of climate change. We must respond with courage to “the increasingly desperate cries of the earth and its poor”. The world needs an "ecological conversion" and changes in prevailing economic and financial models of operation, as an indication of "our transformation of reality in line with God's original gift of all that is." (LS, 5).
The launch of the UNCTAD Report 2019 in the Vatican, with the patronage and participation of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is a consolidated annual event and this year saw the participation of more than sixty guests including Ambassadors to the Holy See, experts in economics and ecology, students of economics faculties and journalists.
