Presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia Talk Climate Change at Second Cochabamba Summit

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrived in Cochabamba, Bolivia on Monday to take part in the Second World People's Conference on Climate Change and Defense of Life, which began over the weekend.

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Santa Elena, October 14th, 2015. (venezuelanalysis.com) – On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrived in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to take part in the Second World People’s Conference on Climate Change and Defense of Life, which began over the weekend.

Hosted by Bolivian President Evo Morales, conclusions drawn at the summit will be presented in Paris at the end of November, at the UN Convention on Climate Change.

Maduro highlighted Venezuela’s role in organizing a people’s PreCOP in Margarita island prior to the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP20) in Peru in December last year. 

“Only the people will save the planet … We cannot trust in the oligarchy or in the International Monetary Fund,” the Venezuelan leader said in his closing comments at the Bolivia summit. 

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa and UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon also led the event in Cochabamba, which was attended by social movements representing over 40 countries.

“Droughts. Fires. Floods. Landslides. Glaciers melting. Oceans turning to acid. Mother Earth is giving us a warning,” Ki-moon told the conference on Saturday. “We must listen. And we must act.”

Insisting that “a transformative deal in Paris” was on the horizon, the UN leader also noted that first world countries will be required to meet their pledge of US$100 billion a year to fight climate change by 2020.

Morales also proposed to the UN secretary the creation of an Environmental International Court of Justice, along with a ten-point plan based on the protective laws for Mother Earth which already exist in the Bolivian constitution. 

During the summit, President Maduro seized the opportunity to talk business with his Bolivian counterpart, indicating that the two South American nations would further strengthen financial ties through energy agreements.

The Venezuelan leader praised Bolivia’s economic progress, saying “We want to learn to incorporate the methodology, the manner of organization and the technology that our companion Evo Morales has pushed in Bolivia.”

According to IMF projections, Bolivia’s GDP will expand by 5 percent by the end of 2015, while Venezuela may see its economy contract by up to 10 percent before the end of December.