Excerpts from the Speech of Ricardo Navaro, CESTA Friends of the Earth El Salvador

"Climate change is the result of a global political and economic system where profits are more important than people and the planet. It is a problem created by the exploitation of the world’s resources to benefit the wealthy, living mostly in the global North. Therefore, the responsibility to solve the climate crisis lies with Northern countries. They must stop appropriating the earth’s atmosphere for a small minority of the population.
Climate change will not be solved by negotiating an agreement behind closed doors. Secret meetings that exclude affected peoples voices only perpetuate the system of injustice - and is nothing less than criminal. We will not be able to stop a profound climate catastrophe if we do not include the voices and the interests of those who have been historically marginalized.
We demand that Northern countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, with no offsets, by 2017, and pay reparations for the atmospheric space they have already used - as the Bolivian government is proposing. What is at stake here is the future of humanity."
Delivered by Ricardo Navaro, CESTA Friends of the Earth El Salvador