 Welcome to what the F is going on in Latin America. CodePink's weekly YouTube program of hot news out of Latin America and the Caribbean. In partnership with Friends of Latin America and Task Force on the Americas, we broadcast every Wednesday at 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 p.m. Eastern on CodePink YouTube. Today, we are very fortunate to have with us as our guest Javier Gutierrez. He is the Secretary of the Presidency of Nicaragua for Climate Change and Vice Minister of Environment and Natural Resources for Nicaragua. He is going to share with us his presentation of Nicaragua's position in the Climate Summit COP26, COP26. Before I introduce Minister Gutierrez, I wanna give you a little bit of background as to what this presentation is about and how it evolved. So this year, under the slogan, Uniting the World to Tackle Climate Change, the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP26, which will be held in Glasgow, UK from 1 to 12 December, 2021, will bring together representatives of some 200 governments with the aim of accelerating climate action to fulfill the Paris Agreement. The presidency of the conference is already working with civil society and business to prepare the annual event and inspire climate action ahead of the event. What is COP or COP? It's the Conference of the Parties or COP. It's the Supreme Body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty that sets out the basic obligations of the 196 states or parties and the European Union to combat climate change. It was signed at the 1992 Earth Summit and came into force in 1994. Since then, a COP has been held every year to review the status of its implementation and to propose, evaluate, and approve other instruments to support its establishment. On 12 December, 2015, in the framework of COP21, world leaders approved in Paris a historic agreement to slow down climate change. They committed to keeping the global average temperature increased to well below two degrees centigrade with respect to pre-industrial levels and to work to limit this increase to 1.5 degrees centigrade. They also agreed to intensify efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to make funding flows consistent with the transition to a low carbon economy and climate resilient development. Now, five years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, climate action has become a key part of recovery plans for the COVID-19 pandemic, a green recovery that creates sustainable jobs and that addresses challenges linked to public health, climate change and loss of biodiversity in order to protect the environment for future generations. As many of you in the audience may know, Nicaragua did not sign the Paris Agreement because the Ortega government did not believe the accord went far enough, specifically regarding wealthy Northern hemisphere countries to the detriment of the vulnerable countries of the global South. This is why we are so very fortunate to hear from Vice Minister Gutierrez today. We're going to hear about Nicaragua's impending proposals at COP26 and how these proposals emphasize the effects of climate change and the necessary response required for Nicaragua and all of Central America. Welcome, Vice Minister Gutierrez. Thank you. First of all, I'm honored to express the greetings and solidarity of our Commander President, Daniel Artega Saavedra and our Vice President, Sister Rosalia Murillo. We are at your service. Thank you so much. It's an honor. It's an honor that you accepted our invitation to join us today. And we so look forward to hearing your presentation. I had the honor of listening to you speak last week. It was profoundly informative and important the information that you have to share. Thank you. We're going to share the presentation now. It's important to highlight that we have decided to call climate crisis to what has been called climate change because there are several findings in our countries that make us think that this is the right way to call this climate crisis. We're going to speak about the position we have defended in international fora. In particular, during the COP26 that will take place in Scotland, UK. It's important when we speak about the Paris Agreement to mention some relevant milestones. In particular, the Earth Summit that took place in 1992 in which three very important conventions were elaborated. The first one was on climate change, the second on biological diversity, and the third had to do with certification of drugs. These three international instrument had the scope of providing support to our countries to be able to reduce the environmental impacts of these phenomena and to grow on their sustainable development parameters. In 2007, the COP of Bali took place. It was an important event. It became a reference to AWAFAS because there the pillars of the convention were defined. And among other elements such as mitigation and adaptation were included technology transfer, capacity building and climate long-term financing was defined. So roadmap was created, the Bali's roadmap that we have considered as a reference and we always take it into account in everything we do in this matters. Then in 2009, the COP of Copenhagen took place an event that created a negative landmark in multilateralism and international negotiations because the agreement document had been negotiated months before by developed countries. And the developing countries were pushed to go through a very tiring negotiation process. So we can see there that in those agreements back then there was no, not enough commitment by developed countries to reduce their emissions. And the countries of ALBA integrated by all of our countries Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, back then Ecuador and the countries of the Caribbean were part of ALBA. We all played a key role in order to defend the non-signature of this Copenhagen agreement. So the Copenhagen agreement had the intention of weakening the principle of differentiated responsibility and respective capacities because it was a way for them to evade the historic responsibility. So that's why I say that ALBA played a key role for several countries not to sign these Copenhagen agreement. And that was a dark moment for multilateralism. Then we have a COP that took place in Mexico that somehow rescued the trust that was reduced in Copenhagen and two elements were created, the Green Climate Fund and from that moment in Mexico a roadmap took place to create the SEP Fund and several safeguards were approved to protect the interest of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples. And there was a definition of the actions that countries must implement to tackle climate change. Then the COP of Barcelona took place that was characterized by the approval of the international mechanism of loss and damages that takes into account the challenges that countries such as Nicaragua are facing. For example, in the case of Nicaragua, there was a loss equivalent to 8% of the gross domestic product. So that's why this mechanism became so important. And then the COP of Paris took place and Nicaragua didn't support the Paris Agreement back then and I have to highlight this because I was part in the delegation. We didn't object the Paris Agreement itself. What we expressed is that we were not going to support the agreement because there was a low level of ambition. There was not a clear defense of the common and differentiated responsibility. There were not enough resources allocated for our countries to tackle climate change. And the mechanisms of indemnity were going to be eliminated in detriment of the country's suffering, the effects of climate change. We didn't support the Paris Agreement back then but then we decided to support yes, based on the Paris Agreement in defense of our interests. So President Daniel Ortega gave us instruction to support the efforts of the Paris Agreement and then to subsequently adhere the agreement. And then Glasgow's COP is going to take place. This is going to be a very important event and we hope that this event may allocate enough resources to comply with the previously acquired commitments. And we do hope that there's clear evidence on the commitments and quantifiable goals of developed countries in the reduction of their emissions. We think this is relevant for the whole world not to reach the 1.5 degrees of increase in temperature. And so that we can develop mechanisms of adaptation and prevention of loss and damages. And the risks that we see in Glasgow have to do with their market approaches because due to the lessons we learned from the past, we see that those mechanisms, unfortunately, sometimes favor the non-compliance by developed countries with regard to their domestic emissions. They use these market mechanisms to avoid the responsibilities and the impact of climate change continues. So this is a risk that we foresee and we're going to pay a lot of attention to this process. By 2023, we expect this a global assessment, a global balance. This is an important moment to review the progress level of the Paris Agreement and take corrective measures. Mainly the Paris Agreement, just to remind you, one of the main objectives is not to increase the average temperature to 1.5 degrees. That's our national position, even if the Paris Agreement establishes two degrees and it's mentioned that everything possible needs to be made in order to avoid 1.5. And also there are contributions determined for each country and we still see a low level of ambition that is insufficient to reach the necessary goals. And we think this is something very relevant to take into account for this COP26. We don't see that the developed countries must reach their maximum emissions. They should reach this maximum emissions and start the descent, but we don't see still the picking. We see that the emissions are increasing significantly. And also another important element to mention is the financing for developed countries for adaptation losses and damages, a sensitive issue for our countries because we are progressively losing economic capacity due to environmental impacts and we don't receive enough support for the mechanisms created within the framework of this convention. And it's important to strengthen transpiracy mechanisms to see how countries are complying with these commitments of the Paris Agreement. Why do we talk about a climate crisis and not climate change? Well, the ECLAC, a client has already recognized for a crisis that affect developing countries at a world level. One of them is that the planetary thresholds have been reached and this is overloading the capacity of our ecosystems. There's a double asymmetry on climate issues that our countries emitting a lot and others that do not emit anything and those that do not emit anything are receiving the impact of climate change. So there's inequality in the levels of wealth. So there are strong migratory movements due to this inequality. And then we have the COVID-19 pandemic. So these four elements and climate change end up exacerbating these inequality levels and the seriousness of this world crisis. So we understand that the temperature increase is the main factor, the main element, the main variable of climate change, but also we understand that emissions are creating this global warming. This is a scientific proven finding that the emissions increase temperature. We are also clear that the global problem of climate change have a local impact, mainly on vulnerable groups such as women, children, indigenous and rural communities and the agricultural sector, environment and forests. These are the main vulnerable groups suffering the environmental impact. We are also seeing that climate inaction will generate greater losses and damages to the economy. And there are remarkable local efforts to face the impact of climate change for us is also relevant that with the already existing conditions in our countries, the climate crisis is the main threat against our socioeconomic wellbeing. Elements are essential for the survival of our families. One of the main reasons for this and there's a high level of concern and especially Nicaragua, we are very concerned. We see that up to this date, the global total emissions are reaching around 59,000 million tons of CO, of equivalent CO2. So all the gases equalized to CO2 and the norm indicates that the planet should not be greater than 14,000 million tons of CO2. So there's an overload in the atmosphere of 45,000 million tons of CO2. So this is the most serious problem that we are facing and that's why we call upon the UN and the Framework Convention of the United Nations and the United Nations Program on Development. And we call upon all of these programs and institution for the reduction of this because this needs to be reduced by 50% by 2030 because otherwise the world temperatures will increase in more than 1.5 degrees and we see the impact of this in many countries. In many countries, the increase in temperature could be three or four degrees. This is a slide that was recently presented by the United Nations Program on the environment that makes us see the situation that we're facing and the countries that have contributed to the increase in temperature due to their emissions and these countries that produce these emissions must assume their leadership in the reduction of these emissions in at least 50%. Another important finding has to do with the concentration of carbon dioxide in particular and other gases. For as of July 21, some days ago, the emissions were 416.62 parts per million, a very high concentration. The maximum standard according to science should be 320 parts per million and you can see that from the industrial era to our days, the increase has been significant. This is another indicator that even in the presence of the pandemic, we haven't seen a reduction. Instead, we have seen an increase. So this ends up worsening our socioeconomic conditions because there is a high level of losses in our countries and that's why we need to demand that developed countries should assume their leadership in the reduction of their emissions. This is another example of how the temperature have increased. This is scientific evidence that has been published in several international reports and in the light of the concentrations we have seen, this will cause an increase in temperature. This is also another important piece of evidence how the temperature average increases and by reviewing historic data, we can see a progressive increase of temperature. An important finding to say that climate change is a reality. We can see that average is displacing in this plot. So this is a clear evidence that we are in a very dangerous situation of displacement of temperature at a global level. We can see that part of the Commonwealth differentiated responsibility principle is based on the fact that there are countries that have very high emissions and we don't see any reduction of their emissions. However, we see also countries that do not produce emissions and are suffering the impact. These are vulnerable countries. So we are defending climate justice because it's not fair that you have countries that are developing their economies, but their development is inflicting economic losses in the countries that are not emitting anything. This is completely unfair. So that's why there should be clear responsibility of these developed countries so that they can assume their responsibilities. We also see a climate performance index in developed countries. They are not complying with what they are expected. So the countries that emit the most have the worst performance. This is another indication of the problem we're facing. Also, we can see here the vulnerability map, Nicaragua is among the countries that are facing the highest risks and we almost do not emit. Our emissions are below 2%. However, we are suffering the impact of the emissions produced by developed countries. We can see here the quadrant one where you see Nicaragua and other Central American countries. You can see the projections here of the International Convention on Climate Change. It is expected an increase of temperature and an increase in diseases. If we continue to see this trend, the negative effects are going to increase significantly. So what does science tell us about the implementation of the Harris Agreement? One of the main positions we defend is that we need to take science seriously and incorporate the implementation of science in our public policies. There are two possibilities which regards to the increase of temperature and increase of 1.5 degrees by 2050 and it's necessarily a reduction. And the other possibility that it has been taken into account in the Paris Agreement is that if measures are taken, the reduction is going to take place in 2075. But we are already suffering the impacts of climate change and there is going to be an acceleration. The new scenarios that we are seeing derived from this increasing temperature are going to take place in the short term. We'll see people having access to less water, suffering droughts, you'll see people suffering a reduction in food security so they're going to have less food. There's going to be a worsening of health conditions, mass extinction, more refugees and according to the United Nations Program for the Environment, if we don't take the necessary measures, we're going to see this increase in temperature of 1.5 degrees by 2025. So in a few weeks, you will see a report published by the ICPCC and we have received information that confirms what we are mentioning here. In Nicaragua, we also carry out analysis to show our evidence on climate change we have conducted studies since 1971 up to date and we have seen an average temperature increase in some places of even 1.7 degrees and this is worrisome because of the effects in the crops. So many crops are susceptible to these increases in temperature. We have carried out these studies in different climate zones of the country and the trend in the increase of temperature is showing us significant increases that in fact have already affected our population and the productivity level in agriculture. We have also seen a decrease in the precipitation systems. So we see a reduction in precipitation ranges between 12 and 24%, which is another clear evidence of the impact of climate change in Nicaragua. With regards to health, we have also conducted models and simulations and we have seen an increase in the cases of diarrhea. So if we have more temperature, we'll see more diarrhea cases. So these create problems in the health sector. The sector is very essential for our population. We also see a correlation between the dengue cases and the precipitation level. This is another element that we are taking into account in our national planning, but also in our local planning. We have also carried out simulation and conducted studies on the increase of diseases when an environmental phenomenon associated to climate change occur. And we see that we have different increases of respiratory diseases associated to adverse climate phenomena that end up having effects in our health, level and in our economy. We have run several cultivation simulations with regards to crops and how they are affected. And these are important elements if we take into account the impact of climate change in our country. So our country is severely threatened by phenomena such as floods and increase in the level of the sea because we have a lot of population that lives and works along the coastlines. So especially in our islands and our insular territories, because they carry out tourist activities, but these areas have undergone climate and environmental alterations. Recently, we carried out a study on the losses and damages caused by the hurricane ETA and IOTA that have inflicted severe damages. Millions of dollars were lost around 8% of the Nicaragua's GDP. However, Nicaragua is moving forward trying to provide our population with the highest levels of investment, both from the public and private sectors where we're working to strengthen our institutions and we have a national plan for poverty reduction and human development establishing as one of the main pillars the efforts to tackle climate change. And recently, the national system for climate change management was created to address these issues and integrate the different sectors of the Nicaraguan society to face climate change. That's why all of our commitments within the convention have been developed and we have worked to have a high level of compliance. So all of our national reports have been included within the convention and we are investing in our energy sector, in our agricultural sector, among others. We are working hard with the system of production, trade and we are working on the technology transfer and widening of capacities. Currently, the current status of negotiation, we don't see what are going to be what the future brings. We don't see that the hundred billion dollars promise have been fulfilled. We don't see enough efforts and mitigation that we consider that are important and it's necessary to activate in a clear way the loss and damage mechanisms because they are necessary for our countries. We also need to consolidate the implementation of the nationally determined contributions because for implementation we need the resources and means of implementation. We don't see in the negotiation clear sign of support towards our country. So what does Nicaragua propose? Well, we will continue working with all the progressive regional blocks. We will continue to work jointly with the Bolivarian Alliance for the people of our Americas, with the Central American Integration System, SICA, the community of Latin American and Caribbean countries, CELAC, also from the perspective of the developed countries with the G77 plus China and we will continue to develop the best decisions for developing countries. So Nicaragua proposes four pillars that have been proposed to the UN and we have four declarations and one of them has to do with the climate justice with reparations based on differentiated responsibility. We also have spoken about Central America and the Caribbean as a highly vulnerable region to extreme weather events. We also have proposed to elevate losses and damages to the same category of mitigation and adaptation and we have called upon the need and the urgency of preserving and recovering forests as the best protection for our population against the different extreme events. We're going to be reaffirming the mandate of the Mother Earth Summit Health in La Paz, Bolivia, last April, 2021. We will continue to defend climate justice with reparations as part of the principle of common but differentiated responsibility and respective capacities. We will continue denouncing the coercive unilateral measures which are illegal and violate international laws and that prevent our countries from tackling climate change. We're going to continue demanding the $100 billion for the Green Climate Fund, which continues to be an unfulfilled promise by the developed countries. We are going to also continue working hard for the market mechanism not to replace the real efforts because vulnerable countries need to be protected against climate change. We're going to increase our possibilities so that the losses and damages can be implemented and this should have been done, but unfortunately political will has not made this possible. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you so very much, Minister Gutierrez. What an impressive presentation. It's so really powerful and so helpful while at the same time, being pretty alarming how vulnerable Nicaragua is as well as much of Central America and the Caribbean. And I wonder if I can ask you a few questions before I let you go. Okay. First. Okay. Good. So first, can you tell our audience how vulnerable Nicaragua is as well as much of Central America tell our audience to, there's two organizations or that I'd like you to tell us about just for clarification purposes. E-C-C-A-C-E-A-H-A-H-E. So for our audience E-C-C-A-C-N-G-H-G emissions, what they are? The greenhouse effect gases are comprised by different gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous, hydrogen and methane, but the one that is more present in the atmosphere and the causing global warming is CO2. That is why the convention of the UN on climate change is prioritizing CO2, but the race of gases such as methane, nitrous, oxide, we try to include them in one unit called COT. That's why we speak about equivalent CO2. So we make an equivalence between the CO2 with the other gases creating the greenhouse effect and global warming. So when we speak about CO, equivalent CO2, we need to understand that all the gases have been combined in one unit. It's a little technical, but this is a language that is recognized during negotiations and in the instrument which help us to make an inventory of the greenhouse effect. This acronym is in English, so it makes reference to greenhouse effect gases. Okay, thank you so much. Gosh, I'm thinking of about five things all at once here. So let me, let's talk a little bit about increased precipitation, hurricane specifically, which will affect the Caribbean coast in Nicaragua, which is where you mentioned the islands are and I had the honor of visiting Corn Island in March when I was in your country that was there for a month. And we brought a delegation of 14 people to study the early sanctions regime against Nicaragua imposed by the United States. And so in the chart that there was, oh, I forget the actual number of the chart, but it showed regarding Inundacion or hurricanes and flooding, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, I'm not sure if I saw Cuba on that chart or not, but these are clearly countries all living along the, close to the equator and specifically in the Caribbean. Can we talk about how the increase in precipitation is creating mosquito-borne illnesses, dengue, you specifically mentioned, and also how the imposition of unilateral course of measures as they're formerly known, many of our audience will refer to them as economic sanctions. They're unilateral because they're imposed solely by the United States. Again, so there's an early sanctions regime against Nicaragua with the Nicaragua, with the Nica Act, but more being developed through the Renus Air Act in the US Congress and Senate right now and also 60 plus years of sanctions against Cuba. So I wonder if you can specifically talk to us about how a sanctions regime imposed by the United States is inhibiting Nicaragua's response to climate change. First of all, these unilateral course of measures are completely illegal. They are not sanctions because sanctions are established by the UN. In the case of measures, these are unilateral and against international law. So starting from this point, we need to understand that these is a completely illegitimate mechanism, however, due to the influence of the capital exercises in the international community and the expression of international capitalism. There have been actions taken against Nicaragua to prevent financing, to prevent access from Nicaragua to funds from the International Development Bank, among others. So we have suffered interruptions in negotiation process that Nicaragua had to access financing. And even if Nicaragua has executed and used successfully the funds provided by the World Bank and the International Development Bank, and this has been mentioned by this institution in several spaces. However, due to these unilateral coercive measures we have been blocked. We have been blocked by the United States in programs that are oriented to reduce poverty to address climate change. So clearly this is an aggression against the right to life. So this is a double-edged diplomacy. We speak about climate change and diplomatic fora, but then the access is interrupted to the fund. So this is an injustice against the indigenous people in Nicaragua, against the rural people of Nicaragua. So we are clearly affected. We are clearly affected in the access and mobilization of resources. However, Nicaragua also has access to solidarity, international aid, and due to our transparent use of the national budget, we continue to work to have access to funds and conduct actions to increase productivity, to improve the position of Nicaragua in markets, and to increase the level of confidence of our clients internationally. And we try to take our products to international markets. This from the point of view of unilateral sanctions. Now with regards to precipitation, the Caribbean is completely affected by the increase of the precipitation level. The ambassador knows well the zone and our Afro-descendant population and indigenous population and self-affected. We have constant rain in these areas. However, a reduction in precipitation levels is going clearly to affect the development of ecosystem. The tropical forest requires rain to continue being healthy. The Caribbean cost is the place where we have the best type of water. We have rivers and our indigenous population there use natural resources to be able to live and survive in a sustainable manner. An example of sustainability and the preservation of forests is what the indigenous people do there because they have an ancestral and responsible management of these resources. And we are learning from this indigenous population. And that is why all the environmental and sustainable practices taking place in Nicaragua are based on the knowledge shared by the indigenous population with us. So when we see a reduction in precipitation, we'll see forests that change their conditions and we start to see a process of degradation. And this has an impact in the services for the indigenous population. And then you have the problem of the increase of diseases, the effects on food security. And that is why we have launched a warning and we are warning about the impact and we're working to minimize the impact in our population. Thank you so much. I think one of the biggest adaptations I've seen personally witnessed in your country is food sovereignty. The Nicaragua grows 95% or produces 95% of the food that it consumes, which in my experience being in your country, I would say twice I've seen activity specific to food sovereignty. One, when I was visiting your country in summer of 2014 on a delegation with Alliance for Global Justice actually was a climate change theme, specifically studying the different programs and practices of Nicaragua as far as recognizing and adapting to climate change. And then specifically being there in March of this year, studying food sovereignty and many other projects that Nicaragua has that are kind of helping you remain sovereign against this sanctions regime imposed by the United States. But the food sovereignty is such a huge, huge issue in combating climate change and maintaining national sovereignty. I wonder if you can address this expansion of what many in the audience would know as the dry corridor in Central America, it's affecting more than just Nicaragua or parts of Nicaragua, a good part of Honduras and up to Mexico as well and how that dry corridor is affecting food sovereignty and migration. Because climate change is often not discussed in the United States relative to migration or as an impact on migration. Yes, there's a discussion whether we're talking about dry quadrant when we see the aquifers, the underground water we see that we have conditions, we have access to underground water when we are compared to really dry zones. So there's a whole discussion about the fact that we need to improve our technology and the mechanisms to be able to guarantee the access of sufficient water for production. But we have what we have called dry corridor. We have something that we call the dry corridor which is a geographical zone in the country characterized by having an inferior precipitation regime compared to other zones of Nicaragua in the North or other places in the Caribbean. This situation of low precipitation level what is causing us is to pay attention to the issue of technology and technology transfer so that we can increase our capacity to also work locally with the communities with the farmers so with those who produce. So they can use technology to establish certain areas for what we have called the water development so that we can have techniques to produce water to store water, to collect water and mainly in these zones even if we have a dry corridor in these zones there are times in which we have rain precipitation so we can develop techniques to collect this water during those seasons and be able to use this water for productivity. Also the programs and projects that involve prioritizing this area to foster the access to technology and that is why our National Institute of Agrarian Technology is putting a remarkable effort and developing a local network to design certain activities to guarantee the access to water so that we can provide with water to our population that has difficulties to have access to it. So what I want to make clear that is that in terms of hydric capacity in the area that is called the dry area it has abundant hydric resources but we need to reinforce technology so that we can guarantee the access to water for human development so Nicaragua has very specialized institution in this topic like the FISE and the ANA the Fund of National Investment and Emergency and the National Institution for Water Access they are focusing on working at a local level to guarantee the access to water by the population. We also have the Ministry of Environment that is protecting the hydrographic basins so that a proper environmental management takes place so that there is an appropriate supply level so that access to water is guaranteed to our population. So as you can see we have several mechanisms for this purpose but we are deeply concerned due to climate change because the droughts are going to increase due to climate change so there is going to be an exacerbation of the current problems and we may face a negative scenario in terms of water supply and productivity that is why we are emphasizing in the necessity of preventive actions as we saw in the slides we need to prevent the increase of temperature and we can also foresee an extreme phenomenon that may affect our communities such as the one we experienced last week in one of our regions in Chantal, Santo Tomás where there was a, there were flooding due to a collapse of the hydrographic basins so that's why we are calling upon the review of the northern area of Nicaragua seeing how can we take corrective measures to prevent this type of collapses that end up affecting the lower part of the basin. So for our audience, I think it's really important for people to understand that Nicaragua has the largest land mass in Central America it stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean so it has two coastlines that are going to be affected by rising sea level and as Minister Gutierrez has explained on the Caribbean coast there is increased hurricane activity, increased flooding and then the country is large enough also to have a dry corridor area so it's really, really important for all of us to understand the vulnerabilities of Nicaragua and other countries of Central America as well including Honduras, Costa Rica it's really, really impressive the program and response that Nicaragua has implemented for itself but is also calling upon and will introduce at COP26 I wonder, is there anything in closing Minister Acosta that you would like to add? Yes, what you just mentioned the first defense front that we have and that's why we raise our voice with regards to the protection of the forest the first barrier that we face ah, the first barrier that protects us are the mangroves, the forests and that is why it's so important that these forests are preserved so that they continue to be the main defense of our population and those that have the degraded can be restored but this doesn't take place overnight and without resources resources are necessary because preservation requires resources and these are defense mechanisms that we need to reinforce against problems and we are not responsible for climate change is produced by the 10 largest economies of the world that are creating 59,000 tons of CO2 and the effects are suffered by our country so the call we are making is that we need to reflect and take the necessary measures so that developed countries need to lead these efforts in the reduction of emissions so that our countries do not continue suffering the impacts derived from the contamination against our planet thank you Thank you so much what an honor to have you as our guest guest today your presentation has been profoundly informative and I really hope it makes such a huge impact in Glasgow in November because it's so important what you have to share and so crucial to the survival of the people of Nicaragua but many, many countries around the globe especially those living along the equator so I want to remind our audience you've been listening to or watching what the F is going on in Latin America Code Pink's weekly YouTube program of hot news out of Latin America in the Caribbean we broadcast every Wednesday at 4.30 p.m. Pacific 7.30 p.m. Eastern on Code Pink's YouTube channel also be sure to listen to Code Pink Radio every Thursday 11 a.m. Eastern 8 a.m. Pacific broadcast simultaneously on WBAI out of New York City and WPFW out of Washington D.C. you can also find the radio on Apple Podcast and Spotify too I believe so thank you again Minister Gutierrez such an honor to have you with us today and I'm so thankful for the information that you shared with all of us and everybody will see you next week, let's see thank you so much