The Bolivian delegation held on Tuesday a press conference in the framework of the official negotiations of the COP 16 on Climate Change in Cancun. At the end of the press conference, Solon talked to other media, including Real World Radio.

The US has warned that it will suspend all financial aid funds to countries that do not sign the “Copenhagen Accord”, the agreement reached by a group of countries in an anti-democratic way at the COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bolivia is among the countries which refused to sign the Accord. “The US has already withdrawn three million dollars”, said Solon, and added that the North American country is trying to “corner” Bolivia with an “imperialistic and arrogant attitude”. “They might do it 100 times, but Bolivia and the ALBA countries (the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas) will maintain their position”.

According to Solon, the ALBA countries “have been the major advocates of democracy in Copenhagen, because we do not accept a group of countries imposing documents written behind closed doors, where the rest of the countries are not participating”. “ALBA is here to ensure the respect of democracy, and multilateralism within this process of negotiations”, he said.

The Bolivian government´s aim at this COP is to make developed countries agree to reduce their emissions by a 50 per cent from 2013 to 2017 (the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol) compared to 1990 levels, to limit the rise of global temperature to 1° C. Bolivia is also demanding these reductions to be domestic, without resorting to any kind of market mechanism that allows rich countries to transfer their responsibility to developing countries.

Some of Bolivia´s priorities include the discussion of a universal declaration on the rights of Mother Earth at this COP, and the establishment of an international climate justice tribunal to judge the most pollutant countries.

There is a rumor that Mexico didn´t invite several presidents of progressive countries to the COP to avoid their criticisms at the negotiations. One of the presidents who was allegedly not invited is Evo Morales. Real World Radio asked Solon about this and he confirmed that the Bolivian President will arrive to Cancun on December 9th and he added: “each country decides how to participate in the conference; we have decided to participate at high level, with our President.”

Solon said that “Bolivia´s situation in this negotiation is not easy”, because they only can attract allies with reasons and arguments. “We don´t offer any kind of help, we don’t have money, we are not able to exert pressure, and we would never do so to get the support of a country”, he added.

Bolivia´s UN Ambassador also talked about his concerns about the possibility that the negotiations will not take place in a democratic way within the framework of the UN, as was the case last year in Copenhagen. “We are extremely worried that texts written by a president or facilitator appear again without being the result of a process of negotiation, and then that those texts will be imposed to the countries”. “We warned that if the rules of the game are not respected, we could risk having a Copenhagen Accord Part II, that is, the attempts by a minority of countries to impose a document to the rest”, he explained.

Solon also made reference to the need of climate finance. He said: “of course we want a finance mechanism, but we do not want conditions”. “We don´t want the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund telling us “if you accept this structural adjustment plan we will loan you money”, he highlighted.

The Bolivian representative at the negotiations was consulted about the REDD mechanism. He said that “there needs to be a mechanism to preserve forests”, but he rejected the fact that REDD gives an economic value to forests according to how much CO2 they can capture. “This seems crazy and it won´t lead to any benefits. It will create a market through which some people will get extremely rich”, he said.

Solon also talked about the importance of the “Peoples´ Agreement” which came out as a result of the climate change conference which took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Over 35 thousand delegates from social movements and organizations from 140 countries participated. Solon highlighted the demand to industrialized countries to cut their emissions by 50 per cent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels; the world climate change referendum; and the establishment of an international climate justice tribunal.

Evo Morales government also warned that if a good agreement doesn´t come out of Cancun, they will use all legal tools in the framework of the UN Climate Convention and the Kyoto Protocol to pressure rich countries, the main drivers of the climate crisis.

Photo: Real World Radio