UNCTAD15 Barbados Press conference 04 October Opening

Honourable Mia Amor Motley, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mr Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Rebecca Greenspan, Secretary General of UNCTAD, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, members of the media.

Good afternoon and welcome to this first press conference of UNCTAD 15 taking place in Barbados, Geneva and across the world.

We're happy today to be joined by members of the local media here in Barbados and colleagues from around the globe.

Following this morning's opening ceremony and the World Leaders Summit Dialogue One first we will have brief statements from the three members of the Head Table, beginning with Secretary General Gutierrez, followed by Prime Minister Motley and Secretary General Greenspan, following which there will be a question and answer session.

I now invite Mr Gutierrez to make his statement.

Dear members of the press, thank you very much for your presence.

I want first of all to thank Prime Minister Motley and all Barbadians for your warm Beijing welcome, I believe is the meaning and for so graciously hosting these years and that the country's journey has been a remarkable 1.

Overcoming colonialism and achieving independence, forging a modern and increasingly diverse economy, from tourism and agriculture to becoming a hub of business in the Caribbean, to building a digital economy, enhancing efficiency while creating new jobs, and to its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform efforts.

Barbados is also an influential regional leader in the Caribbean, a valued member of the United Nations for the last 50-5 years and the strong supporter of the Sustainable Development Goals, including its participation in the national voluntary review process.

A long time advocate for small island developing states, hosting the first ever global conference on the sustainable development of these countries in 1994.

An environmental and climate leader through its aspiration to become a green, resilient and fossil fuel free economy by 2030.

And the powerful global voice, as Prime Minister Motley so Clear demonstrated in an address at UN General Assembly two weeks ago.

Like so many small island developing states, Barbados is also a country where the global challenges we face are starkly revealed.

COVID-19, climate change, natural disasters like July's Hurricane Elsa, job losses and economic hardship, inadequate infrastructure and fair trade rules and inequalities and poverty.

So this is the fitting place to discuss the urgent steps we need to take to ensure a strong, sustainable economy recovery for all.

And that is a clear objective of UNCTARD.

Through my address to the conference and in my meetings and discussions during this visit, I am highlighting the urgent work ahead.

We need to end the pandemic by uniting the world behind the bold global vaccination plan to reach 70% of people in every country by mid 2022.

And we need to end depth distress by following the four point depth crisis action plan outlined in my speech today to expand liquidity, including by a substantial reallocation of special drawing rights to vulnerable countries that need them to suspend their payments into next year for all countries that need it, including middle income countries.

To ensure effective debt relief and develop a comprehensive strategy to reform the international debt architecture which traps too many countries in deadly cycles of debt waves.

And to work with the private sector and multilateral development banks to develop innovative financing tools and help lower risk and draw capital to bankable job creating projects in communities that need them.

We also need to support all the systems that have been starved of investment by the pandemic, health and education, social protection and decent jobs.

And you need to level the playing field for trading nations like Barbados.

This includes stronger rules for fair and open trade and helping developing countries modernise and digitise their trade infrastructure so they can complete.

And finally, we need to tackle climate change with both commitments at the upcoming COP 26.

All countries should follow should follow through on their commitments to help developing countries adapt to the green economy, with at least 100 billion U.S.

dollars in climate finance annually in support to the development developing countries programmes of mitigation and adaptation.

And I repeat my call to donors and multilateral development banks to allocate at least 50% of their climate support towards adaptation and resilience, and make it easier for countries affected by natural disasters to access the funding they need throughout.

I look forward to working closely with Prime Minister Motley on these and other issues.

Barbados is an important and influential voice as the United Nations, and we will work with all Barbadians to shape a better, more sustainable future for all.

And we believe UNCTAT can be a fundamental instrument to achieve that objective.

Thank you.

And of course, I will also be at your disposal for any questions.

Thank you, Secretary General.

We will now hear from Prime Minister Motley.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Secretary General Guterres, Secretary General Greenspan, members of the media.

We are here in this UNCTAD 15 conference to try to give purpose to the meaning of this organisation as it was intended to be, to be the voice for developing nations, to be an engine for trade and development.

One of the things that has become clearer and clearer, especially as we reflect on all of the global problems, is that there must be the spirit of compromise.

There must be the spirit of give and take.

There is no country in this world that can survive on its own.

There is no individual company that can be profitable on its own.

There is no individual who can live without recourse.

So our families, our communities, our countries, if we know this in our day-to-day lives, it is impossible to accept that we are not seeing that spirit of compromise and give and take in the international community at this very perilous time.

If this were an educational exercise, if this were a quiz competition, if this were anything other than what it is, we can understand it.

But it is about the future of our planet.

It is about the future of our people.

It is about the future of all living specimens on this earth.

It is ultimately about our future.

And we hope that even though UNCTAD deals with trade and development, it is impossible to address these issues be worsen it from the pandemic.

The pandemic has laid bare all of our fragility, particularly as it relates to the global supply chain, as it relates to trade and logistics.

In Barbados, we have our population complaining about the cost of living.

But guess what?

Almost every other population globally now is complaining about the cost of living and the cost of food.

In Barbados, we also have the concern about the need for our farmers and others to be able to produce consistently.

But if our markets are open as small island States and the global supply chain is disrupted and the regional transport sector is disrupted, where does that leave us?

We have therefore to find in our discussions this week and as we go on, because as I said this morning, this is a journey, This is not a destination.

And we will continue to advocate on behalf not just a small island developing states.

But we believe that we have a voice for the people of this world, not because we're arrogant, but because many of the people of this world are in the same position as the people of our nation.

And we must therefore find common cause.

And that common cause hopefully will give us the capacity to want to give and take because we know what is on the other side of of the journey.

At the same time, we recognise that there is an absolute necessity for us to change our paradigm as a nation.

As is the case with almost all small island developing states.

We have spent our period of independence exploiting what is terrestrial, what is our land jurisdiction.

And it became very clear to us that we have now to deal also with the blue economy, not just for our own prosperity, but in order to be able to save the planet.

As the Director General of WTO said in the last panel, there can really be no safe planet without safe oceans.

And we therefore have an obligation to include in our discussions going forward aspects pertaining to the blue economy from the point of view, yes, of trade and investment, but also from the point of view of our being able to use it as a serious carbon thing.

Recognising that the sea grasses that we may plant and may have to plant in our oceans can allow for more rapid emissions of carbon, of carbon sequestration more rapidly than even the rainforests of the world.

But to do that requires fiscal space, requires funding, requires the adaptation funds that the Secretary General's voice has been so strong in asking for.

And for us to believe that we can ignore that call, while at the same time not having sufficient ambition to keep the world at 1.5° increase is literally to fool ourselves.

The G20 countries of the world produce 78% of the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing us problems.

I want to repeat myself.

The G20 countries are responsible for 78% of the greenhouse gas emissions in every instance.

Even though their progress there has been progress with respect to their ambitions in NDCS, it is regrettably not enough.

And therefore, that gap to which I spoke in New York last week when I asked the world to main the gap is so, so critical.

And if you're not going to mind the gap, then you have to provide the funds for adaptation.

If not, we will become accomplices.

The climate genocide and climate migration.

I trust and pray that this is just the idle words of a Prime Minister and not the projection of our future.

At the same time, we have to deal with the debt and the Secretary General has set out very clearly this morning framework from which debt can be dealt with.

As I said earlier, many assume that our **** debt load is because of profligacy and corruption.

I dare you to do an analysis and you will see that in many instances it is as a result of an adaptation to the economic environment within which we are living.

Whether it is the increase in fossil fuel prices as we are seeing happening again, whether it is as a result of the loss of production and tax revenue because of the establishment of the WTO, or whether it is as a result of the climatic events that continue to be devilish and because of our population, still large percentage is living in poverty.

Governments must stand in the breach as we are doing here in Barbados with the victims of Hurricane Elsa and the ***** storm earlier this year.

That therefore means that debt increases are inevitable.

And if we don't continue the efforts to solve the debt problems and, and, and I isolate my own country, largely because we were fortunate enough to undertake domestic and international debt restructuring and we completed it one month before the pandemic started.

I shudder to think where we would be as a nation now had we not completed that process.

And indeed the evidence of its success, Secretary General, comes in the fact that as we moved, as I explained to Secretary Greenspan, to have a a debt for nature plan, we realised that we couldn't even do that properly because having restructured our international debt, where we thought it would have been trading significantly below par as of last week, our debt trades at 100.5 above par.

It therefore means that we have had to use other creative mechanisms to be able to see how we can isolate funding for marine conservation because our blue economy is 424 times the size of our land territory.

It is against that backdrop that we urge other countries across the developing world not to be timid and to confront the reality of dealing with their debt because as the Secretary General said, you will either service your debt or you will service your people.

The people of Barbados learnt that well because between 2013 and 2018, this country could not raise a single cent cent in international debt after December 2013 and we're spending $0.67 in every dollar service and debt.

Since our restructuring of debt, we've been able to meet the development needs of this country even though we are in an IMF programme.

I say this and share this because it is imperative that the talk that goes around and around, particularly as it relates to the restructuring of sovereign debt and to have a multilateral framework for order is absolutely critical.

If we do not have that, we will have disorderly debt, a disorderly disruption of debt rather than an orderly reallocation of obligations.

I refer finally to the debt for nature clauses that we have the debt decidedly natural disaster clauses that we've put in our debt.

And I asked Secretary General for your support because we believe that it shouldn't only be in our commercial bonds, but we believe that the multilateral institutions ought to include provisions for natural disaster clauses.

Barbados is now the largest issuer of natural disaster clauses of bonds with natural disaster clauses globally.

Grenada be in the other country and why do we ask for it?

If an event hits US of some proportion, it is better that those who lend us money know that their money is safe and that we will literally have a moratorium on the payment of our debts for two years and that we capitalise our interests at the back end.

That is an orderly restructuring of our debt obligations.

But what will happen if we don't do that is that both sides will be wondering at what point we will default and then they will pricing the risk of default to make the cost of the debt more expensive.

To us it does not make any sense.

In the same way that there are a number of other issues that fall from climatic events that we have not started to deal with, including the cost of insurance, which becomes a critical component, as you know, of any financial transaction.

And therefore, if our companies are incapable of being able to secure insurance coverage because of the cost of insurance, then they're unlikely to have access to the oxygen of finance.

So I raise these issues to support you on the debt and just hope that we can act early enough without seeing a financial crisis following the debt crisis.

And the final points relate, of course, to the pandemic.

Every country in the Caribbean is in the grips now of some kind of surge.

Delta has been the ultimate aspect of COVID.

If we believe that COVID has laid bare all of our frailties and fragilities, then Delta has been the tip of the spear that has gone deep, deep, deep.

And I say so because Delta is ultimately at its most dangerous when we are supposed to be at our most comfortable in our homes and with our families.

The reality is that across the world it is not individuals who have been taken down now it is families.

The reality also is, as Doctor Tedros said just now, we are at a point where the pandemic will finish when we decide as a people globally that it must finish.

And until such time we will continue to have persons being affected by it.

And we are in the race against further mutations and variants that may well be worse than what we see in Delta, which is bad enough.

We can only ask that all of our actions move to a point of vaccine equity.

And we can only ask that there also be an urgency about identifying locations such as ours and others in other parts of the world to become locations for the manufacturing and or bottling of vaccines.

So it's to ensure a more ready capacity to distribute to those most in need.

I do not accept that it is impossible for us to achieve that.

I do not accept that it is impossible for vaccine and manufacturing on bottling plants to be available throughout every region in this world to ensure the shortest distance to people's arms.

If we can achieve that and if we can push for that enough that, then I believe that we not only lay the foundation for the completion of for the conquering of this pandemic, although it is likely to become endemic for us regrettably, but also for what we are concerned about what we call the slow motion pandemic, the one of antimicrobial resistance to which I referred earlier.

This threatens to reverse a century in medical progress and a visit to the dentist.

Or the having of a child can now be as dangerous to you as someone putting a gun to your head.

And why?

Because if you catch an infection, especially one of the Super viruses, a lot of the antibiotics that now exist in the world are not capable of curing you.

If that is not enough in the middle of this pandemic to allow for a burst of investment in research, then they do not know what will be.

And I pray that as we go through this, and especially as the WTO also looks at the issue of trade and health, that there will be greater commitment to the providing of public funds to prepare the world's countries for the next pandemic.

But we already know what it is going to be because we are in the thrust of it as we speak as well.

So with those few words, I really want to thank you, Secretary General.

As I said, you have graced us with your presence, but above all else, you have solidified us with your words.

And those words give small countries like ours a comfort that even though many others may see us as not mattering sufficiently and as being dispensable, that you carry with you the spirit of the United Nations by ensuring that those of us who most need assistance, just as we as governments protect those most vulnerable in our populations, That in that spirit, we live another day to breathe and to fight and to believe that the victory is possible.

But the difficulty is in the persuasion of those who are regrettably blocking progress to the finish line.

We wish you all the very best in health, all the very best in your advocacy, all the very best in your negotiations.

And Rebecca, I want simply to say to you that I look forward over the course of the next three years us being able to revitalise untad in ways that are meaningful to our individual Member States.

We've already agreed that we will want to have at least three sessions, one on investment, one on the creative economy because that is where the Caribbean excels globally without any fear of contradiction and one on the issue of trade, logistics and transport in particular.

As I said, that is now our greatest concern as a region and we therefore would want to start with the trade logistics and transport because of the implications for food costs and other supply costs in our economy, which threatened to make our enterprises anti competitive, uncompetitive.

Sorry.

So I thank you for your leadership as you've come in.

You've hit the ground running, and we look forward to working with you.

We know that you are already committed to the global S.

We also know that you are a citizen of the Americas, and therefore you understand our reality in this part of the world.

And we hope that that will allow you to speak on our behalf when we are not present.

But thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

And likewise, I'm available for questions.

Thank you Prime Minister and I now invite Secretary General Greenspan to speak.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I I first want to recognise the leadership of Prime Minister Matlin organising this event and, and really thank her and her team and all the citizens of this beautiful country for hosting us, for the warm welcome we have received and for the excellent, excellent, really organisation of this conference.

And I want to thank really very much Secretary General Guterres for being with us.

Secretary General, your presence here means a lot to us and the recognition of this event as the the main trade and development event that we will have the most universal attendant in a series of events that I think that we will have this year in that this conference has to inform.

This can be like a first block in the construction of a what you called a Prime Minister motley spirit of compromise to get the solutions.

So from here we will get, we will go to the WTO ministerial meeting and we hope that the discussions that we will have here will also inform the discussions that they will have in MC12 in the Ministerial of WTO.

And from there we will go to the climate change A conference and we will have the conference, the LBC 5 conference at the beginning of next year.

So there are a series of opportunities that we will have to make sure that our journey to find solutions to support the vision of the Secretary General with, with our common agenda to achieve the SDGS is part of a process that we all contribute to.

And I think that the ANTAC is a very good place to make that first kick of the process and and to be a very good partner for finding the solutions that the the countries need.

Let me give you some idea of what this event has meant.

First of all, I think that is very important to recognise again like the Secretary General already did and like we did in the inauguration that this is the first not only Caribbean but small island developing country to organise an anti converse ever.

So this is a really a very important point because it puts also the agenda of deceit in the centre of the discussion.

That is very important to have.

The second thing is that this is hybrid conference as you, you know and it's true some some say that they maybe when it is online you have more possibility to get **** level participation, but that's a tricky one.

It's not always so.

And the Secretary General have point to me that many times during these days.

And I want I want to stress that the **** level participation of this conference is the highest we have ever had and not only in recorded messaging, but in direct online panels that interact with each other.

The inauguration, I think that was a clear example, but also the panel that we just a witness with a with a Prime Minister Motley was an excellent panel.

We had the president of the Prime Minister of Antigua in Berbuda.

We had President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado.

We had a WHON go see DOT WTO and UNEP being represented at the highest level.

We had the DSG Amina Muhammad with us.

So really was a very, very substantive panel and and the President of the General Assembly, that is the the Ambassador of Maldives.

So very well represented.

We have, we have, apart from Barbados in Geneva studios, we have 16 studios around the world.

So we did that for the countries that have problems in their connections and their connectivity to be able to be represented, to be able to have a voice and to be here.

We have participation of 139 countries in the conference.

We have registered people registered on on above 2000 and before the event 1500 participating in the different events in youth, in creative industries, in gender around the world.

So this is really a multiple stakeholder conference with very **** participation and representation and legitimacy for the discussion around the world.

The we were not able, dear Prime Minister, to to bring the world to to Barbados, but we are bringing Barbados to the world.

And so I think that it has worked quite well.

Let me also referred to some of the things that the Secretary General and and Prime Minister Motley referred to.

I think that is true that we are the voice of the developing and the voice of the global S, But the important thing is that we need to bring that voice to a place where we discuss the solutions.

Because if we won't have the universal engagement, universal participation of all countries of the world, so we won't be able to build the consensus we need for the solutions we are proposing.

So that interdependence has to have a place where we discuss, where we dialogue when we build for the future.

And I think that we are well placed in the areas that where we have the expertise to really make a contribution in that sense and take advantage of the opportunity.

The digital revolution is an opportunity.

It's a challenge because of the inequalities, but it's a huge opportunity.

Like the Secretary General and Prime Minister has stated all the during these last two years, the colour economy, you know when I studied economics, Secretary General, Prime Minister, there were no colours.

But now we talk about the green economy, we talk about the blue economy, we talk about the orange economy of creativity and creative industries.

We talk about the purple or white economy, that is the current economy, the economy so important for women, for important, so important for humanity.

So that is a huge opportunity for all our countries to base our diversification in the new economy, not in the old economy.

And that's why we have to channel the investments of this world not towards the old, but towards the new.

And that is not happening.

And that's part of what our task is to channel it to the new, to the developing world, to the small and medium sized enterprises, to the talent and the new ideas, not to the old idea.

And the third part is obviously trade and the financial flows that we have been talking about.

I just want to put my whole support to the proposals that the Secretary General has been the debt plan that the Secretary General has outlined is key, key for the developing world, but also new forms of financing.

We have to open up the opportunities for us to be able to do the investment in our people that we need to do in climate resilience and climate adaptation.

We don't have more time, but I want just to finish saying that we expect strong results from the negotiations that are taking place for the outcome document in ICAC 15 and that we will contribute in all our capacity to a more equal recovery and a more post pandemic world that will be worth it or that name because of recovery.

As we said, with more poverty, more inequality, more food insecurity, more gender inequalities doesn't deserve to be called Republican.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Secretary General Greenspan, Members of the media, our time is extremely limited, but we want to open the floor.

We will start with a question from our local media and then we throw it open to our global media.

Please remember to stick to the subject of trade and development and issues that relate to this conference and also remember to speak clearly and state your name and your organisation.

So do we have a question from our local media?

Randy Bennett, Barbados today.

This question is for the Prime Minister, right?

St Assuming office about 3 years ago, you've been lobbying strongly for more access to funding for SIDS, for more attention to be paid to climate change and more recently equitable vaccines for all.

How hopeful are you these broad problems will be addressed at this conference?

Well, it's not simply about this conference.

This conference is just another platform on the road to that advocacy.

I think that the Secretary General will indicate to you that while the $100 billion has not necessarily been secured, we've gotten closer to that target.

The issue for us, however, is how that money is to be deployed.

And we would want to see at least 50% in adaptation, as you've heard.

And adaptation simply is how do we prepare ourselves for the fact that if the world doesn't meet the 1.5°, we're going to see worse climatic events.

And therefore we have to make sure we can minimise like what we've done on our coastal protection so as to make sure that we can stop the erosion and stop the salt water incursions into our wells and aquifers.

Because of course, that will limit our capacity for groundwater.

So this conference is just another bridge towards getting the world to recognise that we do need serious action on climate, that we also need serious action on debt.

I didn't speak just now, for example, about the SDRS.

We've gotten the commitment.

A year ago, we didn't know whether we would get the increased SDRS.

We have 650 billion Barbie.

This is, for example, already received our quote of SDRS.

But for us, the big issue is how can we redistribute the SDRS in a way that those who really need them, rather than going to those who already have the benefit of the power of quantitative easing.

The world expanded its monetary supply by about $20 trillion last year.

19 of that 20 trillion went to the advanced economies who through the power of quantitative easing were able to meet their demands.

The rest of us have nothing.

The BSSA was meant for low income countries, and even that that was set at 12 billion, but only about 5 to 6 billion has been distributed.

This morning you heard the secretary General call not just for a continuation of the DSSA, but for its expansion to middle income countries like ours.

Because quite frankly, between the low income countries in the DSSA and the few advanced countries with 19 trillion, the rest of us stood in the middle with little or nothing to protect us or give us the ability to meet the needs of our people.

So we'll continue the advocacy because the truth is that it is a simple problem to solve because it just requires countries saying yes.

There are a few things, but the task of getting them to say yes, yes is as complex as it can ever be and challenging as it can ever be.

So we'll continue the advocacy.

We've seen some progress.

We've seen some movement.

As I said, the STRS were not there a year ago and we're closer to the 100 billion.

We're not where we want to be.

I've already said that the 100 billion today, five years ago, is not 100 billion today.

So even that, we've lost part of the battle.

But as Rebecca said, we have to focus now on solutions and we have to focus clearly on those things that can make a difference.

That's why I spoke about the need by manufacturing or a bottling plant in the various regions of the world to deal not just with this pandemic, but to deal with future pandemics and future needs, the pharmaceuticals.

So thank you.

Thank you.

We move now to our global journalists, and we want to give the opportunity to Catherine Fiancan of France 24.

Please remember to unmute your microphone.

Yes, thank you for for giving me the floor.

I would like to, to ask a question related to what the Secretary General mentioned in his statement about a part of the economy that is in fact reboosting and a part, another part that is not following up.

So I would like to, to, to have the, the reaction and the feedback on that one by the Prime Minister of Barbados and also about what she mentioned about equality, access to vaccine.

We just heard that the EU decided to accept a reboost for people that are 18 and older.

So what is your reaction?

Don't.

What is your reaction towards all those countries that are at states that are listening to your statements on the one hand and acting on a totally different way?

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I'm not sure I got the first part of your question, but as it relates to the second part, let me say that.

I am sure that the persons who will receive the booster will be happy and, and, and and that is absolutely clear.

But the issue for us, as I said at the beginning of this press briefing, is a spirit of give and take.

And if we don't have that spirit and we don't recognise that it's not only the right thing to do in accordance with our conscience, but it is also the right thing to do scientifically to bring this pandemic not, even if not to an end, to be able to curtail the extent to which it has decimated global activity and taken so many lives.

The variants are real, the mutations are real.

And if we don't get vaccines into the arms of persons in every region of this world, we'll continue to have to fight the battle.

I think those who in North America and Europe thought they had reached their goals safely, we're shocked to hear about Delta.

And Delta existed simply because we did not act as a global community from the very start.

And when you hear me therefore call for moral strategic leadership, it's not just to do the right thing, which morality is about, but it is also to do the strategic thing, which will therefore ensure that we close the gap through which these mutations can come.

The first part of the question, if you can repeat for me, please.

I'm not sure I got it.

Catherine Fiancon, are you going to repeat your question?

If not, we're going to move on.

Yes.

I mean, I don't know if you hear me.

Do you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

OK, Sorry, sorry.

OK, I thank you.

So in in fact, my question was related to what's the UNSG said at the opening ceremony.

He spoke about the fact that some countries have, in fact their economy is recovering and you have other countries that seems to be to stay behind.

So I would like to have the impression of the Prime Minister about that Bill.

It's a fact.

Last year, the tourism and travel dependent countries of the world all saw double digit declines, which in real terms effectively wiped out a decade of progress in almost every one of our countries.

At the same time, there are other countries who have been able to spend their way quick and urgent recovery because of the fiscal stimulus.

The danger that the world is facing, and I've raised this with the Development Committee at the World Bank, in the IMF, is that at the very time when countries like ourselves are reaching the limit of the fiscal stimuli that we can use, you are not getting private investments, stepping up to the plate because of an absence, I believe, of innovative financial instruments.

And what you have, therefore, is a surplus of private savings, but an absence of private investment.

That is a very dangerous, dangerous scenario.

And we really hope that we can.

Next week we see the World Bank and the IMF meetings, that we can see some serious progress with respect to the kinds of measures that need to be put in place for developing countries, because we just have limited options now.

And as I said, if we have with the limited options to find money to fight climate, to find money to continue to fight the pandemic, there's a limit to what you can do.

And we really know in in Barbados, we would say you're making much sport at us, but you're really making a joke on the whole scenario.

So I really do hope that that common sense will prevail.

We have the example of history.

We went from World War One to the Spanish Flu to ultimately the Great Depression, to the rise of populism and protectionism and nationalism and the Holocaust and the World War 2.

And we did all of that before we got to our senses and recognise that there was need for a higher ground, a higher purpose, and hence the United Nations.

This institution exists now.

We don't need to create it to know what to do.

We may need to repurpose aspects of it, but it exists.

And therefore, I hope that the equity that it promised us will be reflected not just in the UN, but in the Bretton Woods institutions next week as we come to recognise that the policy and fiscal space available to the developing world is not, sorry, available to the developed world is not available to the developing world.

Perhaps, I'm not sure.

Secretary General Gutierrez, with Gutierrez, would you like to comment as well?

Well, I've nothing more to add.

It is true that developed countries are able to mobilise about, as I mentioned in my intervention, 28% of their economy in recovery programmes, least developed countries, only 2% of their very, very small economy, and this creates an increase in inequality.

What is dramatic is that the situation was already very inequal when everything started.

The vaccines made inequality bigger.

The debt situation makes inequality bigger.

The interest rates that Barbados has to pay are much higher than the interest rates that apparently Germany has to receive when they issue bonds.

On the other hand, we see that the special drawing rights have increased inequality because they were distributed according to the quotas.

And so those that have more got more.

And if there is, if the real distribution is not meaningful and until now it's not clear that it will be meaningful, that this inequality will even be more dramatic.

And of course, when 1 looks at adaptation costs, when when we see the impacts of climate change, of course there is impact even in New York.

But when we see small island developing states, when we see drought in areas of Africa, when we see storms in namely between the two tropics, it is clear that the acceleration of climate change is increasing inequality.

So we should be reducing inequality.

We should be bringing justice to the world.

We should be creating cohesion within our societies.

And everything that is happening and every way we are dealing with the things that are happening are increasing inequality.

Thank you, Sir.

And our final question will come from Michelle Nichols of Reuters.

Please remember to unmute your mic.

Do we have do we still have?

Michelle Nichols of Reuters online.

It appears that we don't.

So I would like to thank Prime Minister Motley, Secretary General Guterres and Secretary General Greenspan, along with members of the media.

Thank you very much.

And I also want to remind you that there will be twice daily media briefings to update you on the discussions beginning at 7:15 AM tomorrow morning and at 7:15 Barbados time.

I invite you to check the website, the UNCTAD website for the precise times.

This is where we bring an end to this press conference.

Thank you very much and do enjoy your afternoon.