Cuba Defends the Voice of the Global South and the Urgency of Science at COP30

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 18 (ACN) Cuba reaffirmed at the XXX United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30) its commitment to defending the voice of the countries of the Global South and to exposing how science and social unity sustain its environmental policy in a global scenario marked by inequalities.

Armando Rodríguez, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, highlighted in an interview with the newspaper Inverta that climate change is not only an ecological challenge, but also an economic and social one for developing nations, as highlighted on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba.

The Cuban delegation, the publication emphasizes, presented the update of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0), which includes a program to install two thousand megawatts of solar photovoltaic energy with 200 MW of storage by 2026, in addition to actions for mangrove reforestation, increasing forest cover, and transformations in energy, agriculture, and transport.

Rodríguez emphasized that the US blockade constitutes the greatest difficulty for Cuban environmental policy, by limiting access to technologies, financing, and trade. Nevertheless, he highlighted that the country sustains its strategy with its own resources, supported by 50 universities, more than 200 research centers, and a scientific ecosystem which he described as a "conquest of the Revolution," the text confirms.

In this sense, the source specifies that the Cuban minister evoked the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and the historic speech by Fidel Castro, which he considered a cornerstone of the island's environmental policy. "Let hunger be eliminated and not mankind."

In Belém, Cuba presents itself as a small nation that tries to speak on behalf of many, betting on science and unity to face a planetary challenge, the source concludes.