China-Africa Partnership ‘Can Drive Renewable Energy Revolution’, Says Secretary-General in Remarks to Cooperation Summit
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, in Beijing today:
I want to express my deep gratitude to the people and Government of China, for the impeccable organization of this summit.
We meet as geopolitical tensions are rising; conflicts are raging; and poverty and hunger are growing.
The war in Ukraine is grinding on with global impacts — death and destruction reign in Gaza — and the people of Sudan are enduring untold suffering. The climate crisis keeps getting worse; and inequalities are everywhere, exacerbating divisions and polarization. The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement are at risk.
Meanwhile, many African countries are mired in debt and struggling to invest in sustainable development. Many have no access to effective debt relief, scarce resources, and clearly insufficient concessional funding to respond to the basic needs of their population and protect them from the ravages of a climate crisis they did nothing to create.
This situation is unsustainable — and a recipe for social unrest. That is why we proposed deep reforms to the outdated, ineffective and unfair international financial system, and a Sustainable Development Goals Stimulus to provide developing countries with the liquidity they need while seeking medium- and long-term solutions.
Solutions such as increasing the lending capacity of multilateral development banks and enabling them to massively scale up affordable financing for development in Africa; expanding contingency financing through the rechannelling of special drawing rights that until now have essentially benefitted rich countries and not those that have needed it the most; and promoting effective long-term debt restructuring that puts people at the centre.
The support of China and Africa for these reforms is essential.
In this context, South-South cooperation is essential to build capacities and drive progress on shared development goals — while in no way reducing the responsibilities of the Global North.
China’s partnership with the African continent is the main pillar of South-South cooperation. Your joint efforts, based on the Charter of the United Nations, can create a new momentum for African development.
China is already Africa’s long-standing and largest trading partner. And we know that in Africa, as elsewhere, investments are game-changing when they respect national ownership and are financially sustainable, climate-sensitive and consistent with human rights.
I underline President Xi Jinping’s decision to launch the Global Development Initiative in a way that is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals — as well as the focus on green development and promoting integrity-based cooperation, as outlined in President Xi’s remarks at last year’s Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that I had the honour to attend.
And I’d like to highlight, like many have today, the partnership actions on modernization that were announced today by President Xi.
China’s remarkable record of development — including on eradicating poverty — provides a wealth of experience and expertise.
The China-Africa partnership can drive the renewable energy revolution. It can be a catalyst for key transitions on food systems and digital connectivity. And as home to some of the world’s most dynamic economies, Africa can maximize the potential of China’s support in areas from trade to data management, finance and technology.
Around the world, multilateralism faces headwinds — and multilateral institutions are falling behind. It is time to correct some historic injustices.
It is outrageous, for example, that the continent of Africa has still no permanent seat on the Security Council. This month’s Summit of the Future in New York will be a pivotal opportunity for renewal and reform — anchored in solidarity and justice.
We have proposed a focus on prevention and joint approaches to new and emerging threats to global security, building on our recent success — after many years of effort there is now an authorized UN-assessed contribution for African Union-led peace operations, which is a remarkable development achieved in the Security Council recently.
We are pushing for reforms so that the international financial architecture and institutions correspond to the realities of today’s world and can respond to today’s challenges — particularly those faced by developing countries, namely in Africa.
Your full engagement will be critical to finding sustainable solutions. And you can count on the full engagement of the United Nations in support of a strong China-Africa partnership, towards our shared goal of peace, sustainable development and human rights on a healthy planet.