Many Member States noted that the adoption of the Pact is not an end but a beginning for reforming multilateral global governance. Many lauded their priorities reflected in the Pact and highlighted where future work needed to take place. Member State statements addressed reform of the international financial architecture, the UN Security Council and the UN system, the need for fulfilling commitments and striving for a more equitable international order.
Antigua and Barbuda: “The climate crisis neither affects everyone equally, nor is everyone equally responsible. We who have contributed least to the climate crisis are suffering its worst impacts. To add insult to injury, the large polluters are paying themselves hundreds of billions of dollars for carbon credits, to protract their profligate use of fossil fuels at the expense of SIDS. Wealthy nations, disproportionately responsible for the climate crisis, must face the indisputable truth: they owe a debt to the world. The time for excuses is over. They must pay for their polluting ecocidal torts against our planet and human civilization, and take immediate steps to slash emissions aggressively…
As we move to renewable energy, I reemphasize that rich industrialized nations must pay for the loss and damage that have devastated our communities… Wealthy countries and their industrial giants must pay their dues and invest in a sustainable, equitable future for all… Bold new international agreements to end fossil fuel proliferation, innovative financial instruments, and advanced technology are urgently needed. The weight of history and the responsibility to the future rest upon our shoulders. Small Island Developing States met recently in Antigua and Barbuda and laid out the future we want – the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS… Providing debt relief, and access to finance, should be based on countries’ vulnerability and resilience to respond to the myriad global shocks. Tools such as the recently adopted Multidimensional Vulnerability Index and the SIDS Debt Sustainability Support Service are reform measures that were SIDS led and should be adopted by the international community to meet the needs of all vulnerable countries.”
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: “Even today, the cynicism and double-speak of several major developed countries is breathtaking in response to the quest of most of the global community to transform the international financial institutions as fit-for-purpose in today’s world, and for responsible, reasonable alterations in the actual modalities of climate change financing….
At the same time, even a modest, middling social democracy is on the retreat because this old political shell of the post-1945 global order can barely contain the erupting contradictions within, and outside, it. A search for new modalities is emerging but not yet fully formed, in part because the old order is unprepared to relinquish, cede, or share power, even as it realizes that it cannot continue to rule in the old way. But the new is yet to be born, and the forces of change lack a sufficiency of strength to deliver satisfactory alterations… [T]he war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, the conflicts in the Yemen, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the threats across the Taiwan Strait, an empire’s designs on revolutionary Cuba and Venezuela, the violence and more in Haiti, and such like disruptions of the peace globally, all have specific origins and contexts. But they are all reflective, too, of a failure of multilateralism, a hamstrung United Nations framework, and a derogation from the fundamental precepts of the Charter of the United Nations. Large, powerful nations, singly, or in allied combinations, have a propensity to seek dominance.”
Brazil: “The conditions for accessing financial resources remain prohibitive for most low- and middle-income countries.The debt burden limits the fiscal space to invest in health and education, reduce inequality and tackle climate change. African countries borrow at rates that are up to eight times higher than Germany’s and four times higher than the United States’. It is a reverse Marshall Plan, in which the poorest finance the richest. Without greater participation of developing countries in the management of the IMF and the World Bank, there will be no effective change. While the Sustainable Development Goals are lagging behind, the 150 largest companies in the world have together profited 1.8 trillion dollars over the last two years. The fortunes of the world’s top five billionaires have more than doubled since the beginning of this decade, while 60% of humanity has become poorer. The super-rich pay proportionally much less taxes than the working class. To correct this anomaly, Brazil has insisted on international cooperation towards developing minimum global taxation standards…
We need to contemplate a comprehensive review of the [UN] Charter. Its reform should include the following goals:
the transformation of the Economic and Social Council into the main forum for addressing sustainable development and combating climate change, with a real capacity to inspire financial institutions;
the revitalization of the role of the General Assembly, including in matters of international peace and security;
the strengthening of the Peacebuilding Commission;
the reform of the Security Council, focusing on its composition, working methods, and veto rights, in order to make it more effective and representative of contemporary realities.”
Ireland: “Achieving the 2030 Agenda requires that we must address the debt strangulation of the poorest nations and assist the poorest nations in their journey to a flourishing, food-secure and sustainable future. The investment gap to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in developing countries is estimated at $4 trillion per year. It is therefore crucial to reform the global financial system to unlock investment. Achieving food security, an economy of sufficiency, and the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals requires debt sustainability. We cannot continue to ignore the debt burden hanging around the necks of the world’s poorest who have such little fiscal space to do the things being sought of them, be it in responding to climate change or achieving sustainability… We can make a start by agreeing on measures of debt relief and debt sustainability that can be implemented for the poorest nations who face the worst debt crisis in history, where debt payments are stifling investments in health, education, social protection and climate change measures.”
Uganda: “The [Common African Position] is that Africa should have two Permanent Seats with a veto if others have it and two additional Non-Permanent Seats on the Security Council…The core aspiration is for Africa to get representation in the United Nations Security Council as equal partners, and make a contribution to a multilateral system that should become inclusive, equitable, and work for the international peace and security of all, without paralysis or succumbing to parochial interests of major powers…
We demand for the right to development as equal members of the international community without any preconditions or politicization for greater human dignity, freedom, social economic justice. We call for fair access to means of production, technology and capital for the social economic transformation of our economies in line with our national legal frameworks and development plans. Uganda believes that the perpetual preservation of poverty and inequalities in developing countries undermines the fundamental human rights, in particular the rights of the marginalized and poor, and remains a threat to international peace and security, which should no longer be overlooked.”
Indonesia: “First, creating a lasting peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of justice, stability and development. That peace can only thrive if we consistently uphold international law without double standard. In this context, the ongoing genocide by Israel must be stopped immediately. Enough is enough. Palestine’s right to a statehood must be fulfilled based on the two state solution.
Second, safeguarding Right to Development. There are no other option to achieve 2030 Agenda then to accelerate our collective efforts. The Global South has the right to be free from trade discrimination and debt traps. Gaps must be bridged so that no country will be left behind.
Third, promoting an inclusive world order. We need a more adaptive, responsive and effective global governance, including by reforming the UN Security Council and international financial architecture. We cannot afford to wait any longer. We must push for a true and real reform, a reform that listens to the voices of developing countries and address their concerns. Let us say the momentum of this summit to build a future that we can all be proud of. A future that is just equitable and sustainable for all humankind. To attain that, the Pact of the Future must not become a set of empty promises without tangible results on the ground.”
USA: “The United States believes that [UN Security Council reform] should include two permanent seats for Africa, one rotating seat for Small Island Developing States, permanent representation for Latin America and the Caribbean, in addition to the permanent seats for countries we’ve long endorsed: Germany, Japan, India. The United States supports starting negotiations on council reforms immediately. The Pact for the Future does not include every priority, every reform that we believe the UN needs, but it is a significant step toward strengthening and evolving this institution that every Member State should get behind and work to achieve. We’re also pursuing reforms in other international institutions – as well as in our own country – that advance the bold goals and the aspirations of many Member States, particularly those we’ve heard directly from developing countries. We strongly supported the African Union joining the G20 so that African voices are better represented in that group. We’re leading efforts to strengthen the ability of multilateral development banks to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Finland: “Now, of course, the main task of the UN Security Council is to preserve peace. And let’s be honest, it has failed to do so. The UN Security Council [permanent 5 members], in my mind, does not reflect the world of today. Why? Because there’s no representation from Latin America; there’s no representation from Africa; and there’s only one country from Asia. And the thing is that if you want an institution to work, if you want to work within that institution, you need to feel that you have agency, that you work with it. I will make three proposals for the reform of the UN Security Council. The first one is to expand [the P5] by five permanent members: one from Latin America, two from Africa and two from Asia. My second proposal is that the veto power of all permanent members of the Security Council should be scrapped. And the third one is that if a member of the Security Council blatantly violates the UN Charter, its voting rights in the Council should be suspended. Is this a realistic proposal?”
For more Member State statements, see GPF’s repository or specific themes:
Development | Institutional Reform | Peace & Security
