President Lula's speech at the G77 Summit at COP 28

It's a great pleasure to be back participating in this forum after the Summit in Havana last September.

I congratulate the Cuban government on its initiative to bring together the leaders of the group in the context of this COP.

The G77 was fundamental to the creation of the multilateral regime under the Climate Convention and its main advances, including the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the Paris Agreement (2015).

Today, with 134 member countries, the G77 is the main negotiating group at this conference.

The cohesion of the group was indispensable for the historic approval of the loss and damage fund here in Dubai yesterday.

This is an essential achievement for island developing States and serves as inspiration for the negotiations over the next few days.

In a context of growing geopolitical fragmentation, it will be up to the G77 to persist in its role as guardian of multilateralism.

The group's vocation for collective action was forged in our historic fights in favour of decolonization and development.

The challenges posed by climate change will find us united.

There are various models of ecological transition towards a decarbonized world.

A just transition cannot relegate us to the position of commodity producers and raw material exporters.

Nor to inaugurate a new cycle of predatory exploitation of our natural resources, particularly critical minerals.

It must allow us to transform and diversify our productive bases and advance towards industrialization.

Protectionist barriers and unilateral measures imposed by rich countries under the pretext of sustainability lay bare the hypocrisy of free trade rhetoric.

The costs of the developed world's transitions are being transferred to the Global South.

We, who are already the most affected by climate change, are being doubly punished.

It is a point of climate justice that those who have contributed most to global warming should bear their responsibilities.

It is necessary to promote continuous flows of concessional resources to low- and middle-income countries and to solve the problem of indebtedness, particularly for countries on the African continent.

Developing countries will need between 4 and 6 trillion dollars a year to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions and adaptation plans.

We cannot avoid the debate on the lack of representation and the need to reform the World Bank and the IMF.

Climate and environmental financing mechanisms cannot reproduce the exclusionary logic of these institutions.

On the council of the Global Environment Facility, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are obliged to share a single seat, while several developed countries each occupy their own seat.

The four largest environmental funds have a balance of more than ten billion dollars, but developing countries are unable to access them due to bureaucratic obstacles.

It will also be indispensable to define a common approach to fair international taxation and to find solutions to tax evasion, which favors the super-rich.

The recent approval by the UN General Assembly of the Resolution on tax cooperation presented by the African Group shows that it is no longer possible to postpone this discussion.

We will deal with all these questions during Brazil's presidency of the G20, which will focus on reducing inequalities.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The world is changing at a fast pace. We will be left behind if we don't know how to defend our interests.

This also applies to the digital revolution and especially to the subject of Artificial Intelligence.

In the absence of clear, collectively agreed guidelines for the use of Artificial Intelligence, models generated exclusively on the basis of the experiences of Northern countries will take over.

The world cannot repeat the division between responsible and irresponsible countries that once marked discussions on disarmament and non-proliferation.

If we don't actively participate in the regulation of Artificial Intelligence, giving priority to the UN as a forum for concertation, we will be left in the wake of those who have already mastered this tool.

The G77 has already achieved a lot and can achieve much more. We just have to keep trying.

Thank you very much.