Excellencies:
28 years ago, in a short and memorable speech, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz sounded the alarm about the most serious risk to the human species. Global recognition of climate change took years to arrive and is still partial, incomplete and distant from the urgent and articulated actions that the problem demands.
Cuba did not stop. Our "State Plan for Confronting Climate Change", with national goals and international commitments, involves all sectors of the economy and society in adaptation and mitigation actions.
Last September we presented the update of Cuba's Nationally Determined Contribution to the UN Framework Convention on the subject, with much more ambitious commitments.
We set thirteen adaptation goals, prioritized by our condition as a small island developing state, and five mitigation goals, directed fundamentally to Agriculture and Energy, which generate more than 90% of greenhouse gas emissions in our country. archipelago.
The commitment is to achieve by 2030 an energy matrix with 24% of electricity generation from renewable sources; reduce the use of fossil fuels in land vehicles by 50% and increase the forest cover by up to 33%.
The proposed objectives and the progress made, despite the serious limitations imposed on us by the blockade of the United States government, which has intensified in recent years and months to extreme levels, confirm the firm will of Cuba on this crucial issue.
But it is necessary to insist that the production and consumption patterns of capitalism are irrational and unsustainable.
It is time for developed countries to take joint leadership in reducing emissions and in providing the necessary means of implementation to developing countries, in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
Climate change and the crisis caused by COVID-19 are crying out for us to promote international cooperation. Let us not continue to compromise human survival with irrational selfishness. We are all threatened.
Thanks a lot.