New York, 23 April 2018.During her statement at the General Assembly Interactive Dialogue on "Harmony with Nature" in celebration of the International Mother Earth Day, the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo, stressed that the current environmental crisis and its devastating impact on populations, particularly in developing countries, is largely the result of unsustainable production and consumption patterns and the prevailing unjust international economic order.
The representative of the island called on developed countries to fulfill their commitments on transfer of technology, official development assistance, and to provide additional financial resources for actions aimed at climate change adaptation and mitigation and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as part of their historical responsibilities and ecological debt to humanity. She demanded respect for the Right to Development of the countries of the South and the Principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
With regard to Cuba's environmental actions, Rodríguez Camejo explained that the country is working towards the coordination and harmonization of national public policies that promote responsible production and consumption patterns at all levels, with the full support of the government and society as a whole. She further highlighted that the Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model and the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030 is designed so that the country's development ensures prosperity with social justice and equity in harmony with the environment, the rational use and preservation of natural resources, as well as the care and enrichment of the nation's heritage.
The Cuban Ambassador concluded her remarks with a phrase from the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, which has guided Cuba's environmental principles: "Let human life be more rational. Let a just international economic order be implemented (...) Let the ecological debt be paid and not the foreign debt. Let hunger disappear and not man."
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations.