 Mr. President, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Thank you for joining us. I am delighted to have the President of Chile, Sebastian Panera, as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum's Sustainable Development Impact Summit here this year. President Panera, as you know, is the 36th President of Chile, serving his second non-consecutive term. He was also the President of Chile from 2010 to 2014, having also achieved a very successful business path. As such, he is one of the leaders who are most capable of embodying the forum's ethos of public-private cooperation. Chile has been one of the most successful countries in advancing towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Chilean public-private strategy offers an interesting innovative model that we would like to learn more about. And as you all know, President Panera will be hosting COP25 on the climate next December. In this context, I can say with confidence that we have a clear compatibility in our vision and in the commitments we have undertaken to improve the state of the world. I have no doubt that your leadership, Mr. President, will be instrumental as we advance this year. And it is our honor to have you, Mr. President, of with us today, the floor is yours. Welcome. Thank you very much, board. Well, it's true. We are going to be hosting the next COP25 meeting in Santiago and probably it's the last chance that we have to change the course of the world in this respect. Each generation has its own challenge, but I'm convinced that no generation has faced such an urgent and formidable challenge as we are facing now with respect to climate change and global warming. I think this is really the battle of our lifetime. The human being is the smartest creature that lives in this planet. At the same time, it's the only creature which is capable and sometimes I think willing to destroy our planet. And that's something that, of course, we cannot accept. That's why I think that the time for action has come. Political leadership is about doing what is good, what is right for your people, for your country, for the world, even when you are facing or when your mission is unpopular or where you are facing great difficulties. Today we are facing great difficulties. We have a problem with the weakened international economy, a trade or trade war between the two superpowers and many other problems. But I am absolutely convinced that this is something that we have to unite us to face and to confront together how to deal with this climate change which is coming closer to a climate crisis. These difficulties cannot prevent us from acting together to force and to face these huge challenges that I was mentioning before. Leadership is also about balancing the competing interests of different groups. In this case, all those interests come together because it's a question of survival. I read sometimes ago, many magazines, publishing a picture of the planet Earth with the legend saying, let's save planet Earth. I think that they are wrong. It's not planet Earth which is at risk. Planet Earth has lived more than 4,300 million years and has faced and survived all kind of catastrophes. What is really at risk is the survival of the human race in our planet. That's why I'm absolutely convinced that we have to take action. I'm concerned about the results of the last scientific report that is telling us that the situation is much worse than what we thought and it is worse and faster than what we saw. For instance, United for Science will come out with a report this week saying that the last five years has been the hottest five years in the history, in the known history of mankind, that the level of ocean is still rising, that the level of our emission of carbon is still rising and that we are going in the wrong direction. I think in front of that challenge, you have two options. One, wait and see and face the consequences. That's not the right option. The right option is that we need to act now, face the challenge and try to change history while we still can do it. I think I'm very happy because what I've seen and heard during these days in New York is that the community and also the government have realized the huge responsibility that we have to do what has to be done and should have been done long before. So there's a change of attitude. There's a change of compromise. For instance, the Secretary General of the United Nations asked us to organize what he called a coalition for ambition. We have been able in a few weeks to commit 66 countries, one out of every three, to become carbon neutral before 2050. One of them is Chile. Chile is already moving in that direction. Basically, with four tools. First of all, we are decarbonizing 100% of our energy matrix. Second, we are changing the fuel of our public transportation system from fossil fuels to electricity. Third, we are establishing very high standards of energy efficiency in all sectors and we are undertaking a huge effort to increase the forestation and to increase the level and the quantity of our forests. With those four main instruments, we will be able to achieve hopefully before 2050. A few weeks ago, in Osaka, in the G20 meeting, six countries started with this commitment. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the UK and Chile. Now we have 66 countries and not only that, more than 100 cities, more than 100 big enterprises have also achieved this commitment of becoming carbon neutral. For doing that is something that is absolutely needed. Chile was one of the first countries in the world to ban plastic bags. The plastic bags takes less than one second to be produced. It is used on average, not more than 15 minutes and it takes 400 years to be a degrade. 400 years contaminating our oceans and our land. Actually, if we project the course that we are following now, very soon there will be more plastic bags than fish in our oceans and that's another tendency that we need to change. To protect the environment and the biodiversity of our planet Earth, it's not only an environmental commitment, it's a moral commitment. It's something that we do. We owe it to our son, to our children, to grandchildren and the generation that will come because they also have the right to live in this planet Earth. We are the first generation to suffer the consequences of climate change and global warming and the last one that can do something to avoid a tragedy and that's a huge responsibility. But I'm optimistic because we have just participated or organized a summit to protect the rainforest, another one to protect the ocean and the last one which was called by the Secretary General of the United Nations was in terms of climate change and I see a huge change in attitude. We know too much to remain skeptical about what is happening with our climate and what is happening with the global warming. We have no right to just remain skeptical, wait and see what will happen. We have a duty, a moral duty to act and I think that the whole world is understanding that. I would like to thank the young people that are pushing us to go faster, to go further because that's something absolutely necessary. The message has been received and we are taking action and I hope that in the COP that we will celebrate in Chile by December of this year, we will make big significant progress in order to change the course of history and avoid the strategy and control our climate and stop our global warming. The time is now, the time for action is now. Let's move. Thank you Thank you Mr. President for that inspiring speech and also for Chile's commitment both to the rainforest to the ocean and also when it comes to climate change. We know that there is a lot of responsibility also related to hosting this COP 25 on climate. We know we also have some countries that are moving faster than others. As you mentioned yourself Mr. President, there are countries that have committed to be carbon neutral and there are countries that are not committed in the foreseeable future to be carbon neutral. But looking at prospects now in the run-up to COP 25, what do you think is achievable and how are you going to push and notch those that are not in the forefront and hope to make consensus around maybe the most important question that we are faced with as human kind. I think also as a former very successful businessman you are used to looking at costs. I think one of the challenges is that we look at the cost of implementation of action but what we really should look at is the cost of inaction when it comes to climate and I think that's a higher cost than the cost of action. Well the cost of inaction is infinite because all the science and the scientists are telling us that if we don't change and we have only one decade to do the major changes the system will collapse. For instance we will know the results of this science and for action that will tell us that as I was telling you before that the last five years have been the hottest five years in the history of mankind. We have the highest concentration of gases and carbon and greenhouse gases in the history of mankind and the same and the same thing is happening with the acidity and the oxygenation of our oceans. Our poles are melting the sea level is rising although things are not only happening they are speeding up. One thing that we have to realize that that the problem is much more serious than what the scientists expected and it's worsening much rapidly than what they projected. Therefore what are we expecting to achieve in the COP25 in Chile? Basically that countries will come with much more ambitious and enforcement commitments in terms of reducing a greenhouse gases emission. Second we need to put into act and to involve the private sector and for that to be able to put into action article six of the Paris Agreement which is about carbon bonds and carbon markets is absolutely necessary because that's a way to not only to speed up the process but also to improve the efficiency of the process of reducing greenhouse house gases emission. Third we want to introduce into the COP25 the concern and the obligation to protect and conserve our rainforest our oceans and our poles and that's something new has never been considered in the fewest COP. Today we were meeting with the key countries that will make the difference the biggest country and the and the and the most vulnerable country in the United Nations and I've seen a change a dramatic and and very positive change of attitude so we are confident that what was considered impossible remember that the COP in Poland didn't reach major results it was not a success. At the same time we have many other problems I would like to face. Chile will host the APEC meeting in November and there we have other issues that we have to be to address. This harmful and absurd tariff war between the two superpowers has to end. I would like to say being Mr Trump end this harmful and absurd war. We have to fortify the international institution like the World Trade Organization which is not working in order to avoid that each country is taking their own measures in a unilateral way which is not the way to really act in a smart way. So there are so many challenges we have to face that one thing that I realized when we more need because now we have all the science all the technology all the knowledge like never before what we need is leadership and it's really amazing and incredible that the two most powerful countries in the world instead of being leading all these big challenges that we have to face are involved in a stupid tariff war. Talking about trade and trade wars I wrote an article some months ago saying that trade is not a weapon. Trade is really about bringing a prosperity and eradicating poverty and I think Chile is a good example of a country that has a very open economy has eradicated a lot of poverty and probably there's no other country in the world with so many bilateral trade agreements but at the same time you're so supportive of the multilateral system with WTO. So I think your APEC meeting in that respect will be very important. Do you expect some trade breakthroughs there too that you can share with us airing confidence? Well I participated in the Papua Guinea last APEC meeting was a complete failure and again of course we have to change that. Chile was the poorest Spanish colony in America and it has become the most developed and with the highest per capita income country in Latin America based on good institutions and a very open competitive and transparent economy. We have free trade agreements with almost every country in the world the US, Europe, China, India, you name it, more than 80 percent of the PIF has free trade agreements with Chile and that's something which has worked to our benefit but it also works for the benefit of the other country. International trade is good for everybody. When we engage in these protectionist practices we all suffer because remember the world was very open until the until the first world war was the big crisis when we reacted by protecting our markets as if we could protect our market we cannot protect all of our markets. If that was possible I would be a fan of that. You at the most you can protect one sector at the cost of this protecting many other sectors and when the other country retaliates doing exactly the same the situation get much worse so I think that free trade, fair trade is absolutely necessary. Now we need to introduce e-commerce and electronic trade and so many things and for that we need to fortify and modernize the world trade organization which is not playing any role. It's not playing any role. First of all the the panel of arbitration is not working because the people that have to be appointed have not been appointed because some countries are is blocking that so I that's one thing which is very important. In terms of poverty we made a strong commitment. Let me tell you something. Latin America is a very lucky continent. We have had it all. Basque territories, generous natural resources. We didn't have the kind of war that almost destroyed Europe last century. We don't have the kind of religious conflict that are so harmful in so many areas of the world and still it is an underdeveloped continent with almost one third of its population living in poverty. That's not a God will or something related to destiny. It's simply because we have not been able to take advantage of the opportunity and now we have a new opportunity because the society of knowledge and information has proved to be extremely generous with those countries that want to face it and embrace it and extremely cruel with those countries that just look somewhere else and let it pass. So I think that Latin America has now a new opportunity to take advantage of all the good things that we have in Latin America and for that we need to do and undertake huge reforms so we have to improve the quality of education in a Copernican way. We have to invest much more in science and technology and research. We have to be much more inclusive in terms of incorporating everybody to the effort and to the benefits of development. We have to also to be much more friendly with entrepreneurship and innovation. The state many times instead of helping them is really that's exactly the opposite. So there are many challenges in Latin America. Chile has decided to be the first Latin American country to defeat poverty and to reach development before the end of this next decade. That's our mission, that's our target, that's why we're working for. And Mr. President this also fits very well with our arching target of the Sustainable Development goes to 17 when the arching one is eradicating all extreme poverty. I just wanted to pick up on one thing you mentioned in your speech you also addressed the situation with the rainforest and I think there has been concerns related to this. I think there was a meeting this morning also among some Latin American presidents. Any insight on this that you would like to share with us? Well the rain was a diplomatic question. Well very diplomatic. You hope for a candid answer. Sorry you'll get it. Well rainforest is a key for the health of our planet and for the quality of life of our people. They attract almost one third of all the greenhouse gases emissions that we make and also they are very powerful producers of oxygen and they regulate temperature and they regulate the flows of water. There are many things that they can do for us and besides they have a huge and magnificent biodiversity and unfortunately because of forest fires and deforestation we're destroying too much of our rainforest which are in the Amazonian zone in the Congo basin also in Southeast Asia also in Chile we have a very significant rainforest they are not tropical rainforest but they are rainforest in the what we call the El Bosque Valdiviano. So what we're doing with our forest rainforest is something really incredible. That's why when we were meeting in the G7 where we were the G7 meeting in Biaritz and many many rainforests were on fire literally on fire there was a movement to come out with help and what we're doing now and we have this conference which was headed by President Macron and President Duque and myself basically to improve our quality to protect and conserve our rainforest and its magnificent biodiversity and the four principles. First of all we need to protect and conserve our rainforest in a much better way than what we're doing. Second for that we need also to allow for sustainable use of all of those natural resources because many people live on that. Third we need international help and collaboration and fourth that sovereignty must be respected. Those are the four principles that will allow a big alliance from countries where those rainforests are and those countries that want to protect those rainforests because they realize that they don't only impact the countries where they are but they impact the whole world. That's something we make a huge progress today in that respect and therefore we are happy because what I feel is after so many time of discussion and negotiation people have realized that the time is over. The time for action has come and I hope that that new attitude will be expressed fully expressed in commitments and actions in our COP25 that will be hosted by Chile in December of this year. Thank you Mr President let's thank the President for joining us today.