President Lazarus Chakwera has demanded rich countries to fulfill their US$100 billion pledge towards climate change mitigation and to cancel debts to allow poor countries recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Malawi leader made the remarks in his address which was delivered virtually at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) yesterday.
Chakwera said developed nations that polluted the world the most should fulfill their 10-year-old pledge of 100 billion US dollars towards climate mitigation and adaptation.
According to Chakwera, rich nations claim that they are leaders in the global village hence it is time they fulfilled their pledge without any excuses.
“This is not a donation, this is a cleaning fee because if you pollute the planet, we call home it is only right that you pay to clean it up,” said Chakwera.
He also called on the developed nations to help poor countries recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic by cancelling debts which developing countries have.
The Malawi leader said developing countries already have social economic recovery programs for addressing social economic impact of the pandemic.
“But what is missing is debt cancellation that would help us focus on recovery. The effectiveness of this approach has already been proven by the G20 debt service suspension initiative,” said Chakwera.
On vaccines, Chakwera noted that 500 million doses of vaccines in developed countries will expire in three months. He told the developed countries to release the vaccines to poor countries, saying vaccine nationalism is wrong and insensitive.
“You can imagine our disappointment to be at an assembly like this, rubbing shoulders with nations that are now administering booster shots while most of our people are yet to get the first jab,” said Chakwera
The Malawi leader also spoke about the need for reforms at the United Nations. One of the reforms he mentioned is giving Africa two permanent seats with veto powers on the UN Security Council and five non-permanent seats.
