Vucic: Big powers should ensure world peace so that climate change can be tackled

BAKU - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday called on big powers to ensure peace in the world and, above all, resolve the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, so that the world could tackle the issue of climate change.

Addressing the UN's COP29 climate change summit in Baku, Vucic said restoring peace was one of the

"prerequisites to start tackling the issue of fighting climate change."

"Nobody likes the word peace today because everybody wants to win against the other side, everybody wants to see a defeat of the other side. On the other hand, we need to invest much more in peace, otherwise we will have to put more money into armaments, ordnance and weaponry, as we did, and as we do today, instead of investing hugely into all the necessary instruments for fighting climate change," Vucic said.

"Yes, we need to tackle floods, drought, wildfires, air and water pollution and everything else, but before that, we need to establish peace, and that is why I am urging all big powers to settle the problems, to settle the issues in Ukraine, the Middle East, all over the world, and then we will be able to start resolving all these issues," he said.

It is always a case of the big and rich causing problems and the small countries paying the price, Vucic said.

"And that is why I believe it is very important for us to find new financial instruments to help undeveloped and developing countries," he said.

Vucic said instruments must be found to obtain money for investing in new technologies and that there was a question whether the IMF and the World Bank could be encouraged to be "much more helpful than they used to be."

He said the global debt-to-GDP ratio was nearing 100 pct and that this would impact the fight against climate change.

Vucic once again urged "the big and rich to be helpful to poorer countries."

"Our legacy, first and foremost, to the youth, is to create a fair and sustainable society and to shape a livable, thriving world for all. Our legacy must be one of decisive action rooted in hope. Let us leave this conference not only with renewed commitment, but with actionable plans that should shape our collective future, and I am saying this once again, going back to the prerequisites for fighting climate change, which are: peace, peace, peace and more financial instruments that will be available to poorer countries," he concluded.