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Peru will declare a national emergency on climate in the country as its commitment to tackling the climate change crisis, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo said when addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
Castillo didn’t provide further details about what a national emergency on climate entails. He went on to demand the countries that “pollute the most” to “meet their obligations.”
“Human action without respect for nature has led us to question the viability of the planet fighting climate change calls into question our consciences,” he said, adding that “desertification continues to clear forests, especially in the Amazon, and the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly devastating.”
President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson continued to stress action on climate change in an Oval Office meeting Tuesday after the President’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly earlier in the day.
“Earlier today I addressed the United Nations General Assembly and I made clear the climate has to be the core area of action for all of us, and as we look ahead to the UK hosted COP26, which I’m really anxious to attend in Glasgow in November,” Biden said.
“Our economies have to work together, including through our build back better world initiative that we launched in Cardiff Bay, and today we’re going to discuss the next steps on all of this and as well as how the US and UK can continue our cooperation in Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific and around the world and I want to thank you again Boris for making the effort to be here,” he added.
Johnson thanked the President for America’s cooperation on a number of fronts including lifting a ban on British beef, travel restrictions and most importantly climate change.
Johnson also discussed the new trilateral partnership among the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines, saying it “has great potential to benefit the whole of the world with security.”
Asked is Britain was still at “the back of the queue” for a free trade deal, the President said he would talk about trade with Johnson today and they will “have to work that through.” Biden said he does feel very strongly about the Irish Accords and keeping those in place amid Brexit.
“We spent enormous amount of time and effort in the United States. It was a major bipartisan effort made and I would not at all like to see, nor I might add would many of my Republican colleagues, like to see a change in the Irish Accords, the end result having a closed border again,” Biden said, drawing an agreement from Johnson.
Biden also briefly weighed in on the possible extradition of Anne Sacoolas, the US woman accused of killing 19-year-old Harry Dunn in August 2019 while she was driving on the wrong side of the road in England, saying the case is being worked on and he believes there had been a civil settlement reached. He said he doesn’t know the status of the case right now but he would follow up.
Turkey plans to present the Paris climate agreement to its parliament next month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his United Nations General Assembly speech Tuesday afternoon.
“We are among the first countries to have signed the Paris climate agreement, however, we hadn’t yet ratified this agreement due to the injustices related to stated obligations and burden sharing,” he said.
About the Paris climate agreement: It’s an international agreement among nearly 200 nations to combat climate change.
Participants are committed to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and, if possible, below 1.5 degrees. Each country is responsible for developing their own plans for achieving those goals.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country would stop building coal plants abroad, marking a new climate commitment and a shift in policy around its sprawling Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Speaking in a pre-recorded video to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, Xi said the country would also contribute to financial support for developing countries to address the climate crisis.
France did not change its United Nations General Assembly plans in light of the submarine deal between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, according to a spokesperson for the Elysee.
“The Foreign Minister was always going to represent France at the UNGA, the submarines deal did not change our plans,” she said.
Why we’re talking about submarines: The French government recently said it was betrayed when Australia pulled out of their existing multi-billion dollar defense deal, agreeing instead to attain nuclear-powered submarines through a new deal with the United States and the United Kingdom.
Australia was concerned the conventional submarines it ordered from France would not meet its strategic needs, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi told the United Nations General Assembly that nuclear weapons have “no place” in Iran’s defense doctrine.
Raisi reiterated his criticism of the US for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the JCPOA.
The US’ attempt to “counter the Iranian people” by violating the JCPOA and taking the “maximum pressure” approach, have “totally failed … However, the policy of maximum tyranny is still on,” he said.
Rasi called for all parties to stay true to the nuclear deal in practice, adding that multiple reports released by the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, have “attested to adherence of Iran to its commitments.”
“However, the US has not yet discharged its obligations which is lifting sanctions,” Raisi said, going on to say that Iran does not trust promises made by the US government.
“The United States mistakenly believed it would render us desperate and devastated, but our perseverance has yielded results and will always do,” he told world leaders.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday called for the resumption of talks between North Korea and South Korea, and North Korea and the US.
Moon also reiterated his call for a declaration to mark the end of war on the Korean Peninsula.
“More than anything, an end-of-war declaration will mark a pivotal point of departure in creating a new order of reconciliation and cooperation on the Korean Peninsula,” he said, suggesting the two Koreas with the US or the two Koreas with the US and China “declare that the war on the Korean Peninsula is over.”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Koreas simultaneous admission into the United Nations, he added.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took aim at the United States in a blunt pre-recorded speech Tuesday afternoon, invoking two moments that he said “made history” this year: the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, and Afghan civilians seen falling from American evacuation planes last month in Kabul.
In the light of such scenes, Raisi called for the US to refrain from trying to influence the world, saying the world no longer cares about “America First” or “America’s Back” — a jab at both President Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump.
“Freedom does not fit in the backpacks of soldiers coming from outside the region,” he added.
In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly since becoming president, Raisi also attacked the US for keeping sanctions on Iran, amid stalled negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
“We want only what is rightfully ours. All powers must stay true to the nuclear deal in practice,” he said.
President Biden met with Iraq’s President Barham Salih on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the White House announced Tuesday in a readout of the meeting, saying the two “discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship and deepening cooperation on regional diplomatic initiatives.”
The meeting was not listed on Biden’s schedule released by the White House.
Colombian President Iván Duque called on free and fair elections in Venezuela to address the “millions of Venezuelans fleeing the narco dictatorship and infamy,” and outlined the steps his government has undertaken to address the issue.
“We undertake this challenge not being a rich country and at an enormous fiscal cost. The situation requires that through the donor conferences that have been established, we now need to see the disbursements of the commitments of the international community, and I urge you to do that,” Duque asked.
Duque said his government’s goal is to naturalize the 1.8 million Venezuelan migrants living in Colombia.
With the temporary protection status, Venezuelans can legally work in Colombia and earn the same amount as a Colombian citizen would, according to a government statement from August.
Duque also addressed the talks between the government of Nicolás Maduro and Venezuelan opposition taking place in Mexico City, saying “those talks do give some hope” but the only effective solution to “the worst migration crisis affecting the planet” is holding a free and transparent presidential election that involved international observation as soon as possible.
Colombian President Iván Duque on Tuesday called for the fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
“Today, I call upon the international community to strengthen multilateralism in the area of health and to make progress in the fair distribution of vaccines, delegates,” Duque said during his address at the United Nations General Assembly, calling out what he called “shortcomings in multilateralism” in a coordinated response “during the most critical times.”
The equitable distribution of the Covid-19 “is our moral duty,” he said, adding that Colombia is making progress in the national vaccination plan “to cover as the minimum 70% of our citizens.”
President Biden met with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations.
The two leaders touted the US-Australian relationship just days after the announcement of their new partnership drew the ire of France.
He said they would be discussing a free and open Indo-Pacific, conversations that will continue with the first in-person Quad leaders meeting Friday at the White House with leaders from India and Japan.
Biden said Australia is working “in lockstep” with the US on challenges including Covid-19, climate change, and defending democracy, reiterating his view that the world is at an “inflection point.”
Morrison thanked Biden for his leadership and touted the US-Australian partnership, saying the two nations have always stood together to pursue freedom.
“So, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your leadership and your focus on the Indo-Pacific region. There’s no doubt – you get it,” Morrison said.
Biden told Morrison the two had a “lot of work to do” as the spray concluded. He did not respond to shouted questions.
Some background: Biden’s comments come following tension between European leaders and the White House over a scuppered submarine deal. The French government has been seething since last week, when Australia abandoned a huge deal to buy conventional submarines from France. Instead, the US and UK announced they would help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines as part of a new security pact called AUKUS.
The move has opened a new fissure in the Western alliance and sparked growing public criticism from other European officials.
You can read more about the submarine deal here.
President Biden took a shouted question on the situation on the southern border as he departed the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday.
“We’re getting it under control,” he said.
What we know: Videos taken by Al Jazeera and Reuters appear to show law enforcement officers on horseback using aggressive tactics when confronting migrants, including authorities swinging long reins near migrants who crossed the US-Mexico border near Del Rio, Texas.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday said he was “horrified” by the images.
“I was horrified by what I saw,” Mayorkas told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day.” “I’m going to let the investigation run its course. But the pictures that I observed troubled me profoundly. That defies all of the values that we seek to instill in our people.”
Thousands of migrants – many of them Haitian – have gathered in a temporary site under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas as they wait to be processed by US immigration authorities. They sleep in the dirt, surrounded by growing piles of garbage, exposed to the elements and without much food and water, in hopes of being processed by the overwhelmed US Border Patrol.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is contradicted by data and aerial images, non-governmental organizations say.
Bolsonaro said in his remarks that the Amazon had “a 32% reduction in deforestation in the month of August when compared to August of the previous year.”
Brazil’s president used numbers from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) released on Friday that points to a 918 square kilometers deforestation rate for August.
The number is almost double of what was registered in August 2018, before the Bolsonaro administration. Data from the Amazon Institute of Man and Environment (Imazon) – which monitors the deforested areas by satellite – however, points to 1.606 square kilometers of deforestation in August, a 7% rise in comparison to the same month of 2020. It is also the highest rate for August in a decade, according to Imazon´s satellites imagery.
After Bolsonaro’s speech in New York, Amazon in Flames Alliance, a group formed by NGOs Amazon Watch, Greenpeace Brazil, and the Brazilian Climate Observatory, released aerial images of an expedition at Rondonia and Amazonas states on Brazilian Amazon between Sept. 14 and 17.
The images show large areas of the Amazon deforested in July, already consumed by fire, scars from mining activities within protected areas, illegal landing strips, large plots of land being prepared for planting, and cattle grazing alongside recent fires.
Some background: Under the Bolsonaro administration, Amazonas surpassed Rondonia as the third state with the worst level of deforestation, according to INPE. In August alone, 8.588 fire spots were registered in the state, surpassing the record for the same month in 2020, which, in turn, had surpassed that of 2019. Fires are used by land grabbers and ranchers as a tool to deforest areas and take the land.
“Enforcement agencies such as IBAMA need to recover their capacity to act. Losing the southern Amazon, considered the heart of the Amazon, could bring us even closer to the forest’s tipping point. This is a time to act against the crimes, and not to cover them up,” says Ana Paula Vargas, Amazon Watch Brazil Program director.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been criticized for his handling of the global pandemic, told the UN General Assembly that Covid-19 “caught everyone by surprise” in 2020.
Bolsonaro, who is unvaccinated against the virus, said lockdown measures “left a legacy of inflation, particularly in foodstuffs, all over the world.”
“In Brazil, to cater to the needs of the low-income population, who were forced to stay at home by decisions taken by governors and mayors, people who lost their income, we granted an emergency aid of 800 US dollars to 68 million people in 2020.”
The Brazilian president has publicly spoken out against lockdowns, receiving criticism from governors, such as São Paulo governor João Doria.
However, Bolsonaro said that by November this year, all citizens “who have chosen to be vaccinated in Brazil will be duly covered.”
“We support vaccination efforts,” he said, although he acknowledged his own government’s lack of wider vaccine participation. “However, my administration has not supported a vaccine or health passport, or any other vaccine related obligation.”
President Biden wrapped his more than 30 minutes remarks to the UN General Assembly with an optimistic call for the global community to rally behind building “a better future,” by meeting the list of challenges he laid out in his first address as president.
Biden said democracy lives in peaceful protesters, human rights advocates, journalists, women fighting for freedom among others in countries like Belarus, Zambia, Syria and Cuba, while nodding to the US’ own struggles in democracy.
“I stand here today the first time in 20 years the United States is not at war. We’ve turned the page. All the unmatched strength, energy, commitment, will and resources, our nation are now fully and squarely focused on what’s ahead of us, not what was behind,” he said.
President Biden, without naming China, said the United States isn’t seeking to reenter a global era of conflict akin to the decades-long standoff with the Soviet Union.
“The United States will compete, and will compete vigorously, and lead with our values and our strength,” Biden said in his first address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
He said the US would “stand up for our allies and our friends and oppose attempts by stronger countries that dominate weaker ones.” He cited attempts to change territory by force, economic coercion and disinformation as examples of malign activity the US would oppose. Still, he said those efforts should be interpreted as aggression.
“The United States is ready to work with any nation that steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to shared challenges, even if we have intense disagreement in other areas, because we’ll all suffer the consequences of our failure,” he said.
President Biden told world leaders that his country is focused squarely on the future, noting that ending the war in Afghanistan was a step in moving in that direction.
“All the unmatched strength, energy and commitment, will and resources of our nation are now fully and squarely focused on what’s ahead of us, not what was behind,” he continued.
Biden said the US is looking to lead on the global stage, but with the help of its allies and partners.
“As we look ahead, we will lead, we will lead on all the greatest challenges of our time from Covid to climate, peace and security, human dignity and human rights, but we will not go it alone,” he told the United Nations. “We’ll lead together with our allies and partners and in cooperation with all those who believe as we do, that this is within our power to meet these challenges, to build a future, to lift all of our people and preserve this planet. But none of this is inevitable. It’s a choice.”
Earlier in his speech: US President described his worldview of a “new era of relentless diplomacy” in his first remarks to the United Nations General Assembly as President, calling on the world to work together on shared challenges.
Calling it a “moment intermingled with great pain and extraordinary possibility” amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Biden said the “shared grief is a poignant reminder that our collective future will hinge on our ability to recognize our common humanity, and act together.”
Biden reiterated his belief that it is an “inflection point in history” and the dawn of “what must be a decisive decade for the world.”
He framed the moment as an opportunity for the world’s democracies, echoing sentiments casting this time in history as a question of whether democracy can prevail over autocracy.
“Will we affirm and uphold the human dignity and human rights under which nations and common cause more than seven decades ago formed this institution?” Biden asked. He continued, “Or, allow these universal principles to be trampled and twisted in the pursuit of naked political power? In my view, how we answer these questions in this moment, whether we choose to fight for our shared future or not, will reverberate for generations yet to come.”
The President called on world leaders to work together to defeat the pandemic and take steps toward preventing the next pandemic, combat climate change, strengthen the UN charter and human rights globally, and collaborate on trade, cyber, emerging technologies, and the threat of terrorism.
President Biden said the US must remain vigilant against global and domestic terrorism in his address to the United Nations General Assembly.
“The bitter sting of terrorism is real. We’ve almost all experienced it. Last month, we lost 13 American heroes and almost 200 innocent Afghan civilians in a heinous terrorist attack at the Kabul airport. Those who commit acts of terrorism against us will continue to find a determined enemy in the United States. The world today is not the world of 2001, though. And the United States is not the same country we were when we were attacked on 9/11, 20 years ago. Today, we’re better equipped to detect and prevent terrorist threats and we are more resilient in our ability to repel them and to respond,” he said.
Biden also said the US will work with local partners to decrease the need for large military deployments.
“We’ll meet terrorist threats that arise today and in the future with a full range of tools available to us, including working in cooperation with local partners, so that we need not be so reliant on large-scale military deployments. One of the most important ways we can effectively enhance security and reduce violence is by seeking to improve the lives of the people all over the world who see that their governments are not serving their needs,” he said.
President Biden, citing “widespread death and devastation” due to climate change, announced Tuesday he would work with Congress to double US funding to help developing countries combat the crisis.
He said along with private capital efforts, the step would meet a goal of mobilizing $100 billion to support climate action in developing nations.
The steps come as Biden said the world is approaching a “point of no return” in the climate crisis.
He called on nations to “bring their highest possible ambitions to the table,” when world leaders convene in six weeks at a climate summit in Scotland.
