UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says as the Caribbean region celebrates its 50th anniversary, this is a time to critically reflect on the challenges affecting the region such as the climate crisis and an outdated financial system.

The UN Secretary-General who was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 45th Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM on Monday (July 3) held in Trinidad and Tobago, said that “today’s crisis has revealed an international financial system that is outdated, dysfunctional, and unfair.”

As such, he put forward a blueprint to redesign the global financial architecture, which includes the Bretton Woods system.

He also put forward a set of proposed actions that world leaders can take to address the financial situation which include:

• An SDG Stimulus for investments in sustainable development, climate action, and more.
• An enhanced and effective debt relief mechanism
• New financial tools, such as swaps that convert debts into investments in climate adaptation.
• An increase in the capital base of Multilateral Development Banks and a change in their business model with a new approach to risk to be able to leverage more private finance at a reasonable cost in support of developing countries.
• The re-channelling of Special Drawing Rights.
• And a shift in subsidies away from fossil fuels and unsustainable agriculture and food systems into sustainable development.
• A redressing of core injustice facing middle-income countries: the continued lack of access to concessional financing because of allocation metrics that ignore vulnerabilities to shocks such as financial crises or climate-related disasters.

To tackle the climate crisis, Guterres said that limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible but will require carbon emissions to be cut by 45 per cent by 2030.

“I urge Governments to hit fast forward on their net-zero deadlines so that developed countries commit to reaching net-zero as close as possible to 2040 and emerging economies as close as possible to 2050, and Caribbean countries have been showing the way,” he said.

He also urged developed countries to fulfil their financial commitments to developing countries, which includes meeting the $100 billion goal, doubling adaptation finance, replenishing the Green Climate Fund, and operationalizing the loss and damage fund this year.