The environment is undergoing profound changes that affect life on the planet, including human life, since the environment encompasses everything around us: the air, the water, what we eat, the terrain, etc. Currently, climate variations are causing the greatest impact, as they have caused and continue to cause countless natural disasters, which are increasing in frequency and intensity.

Numerous scientists and experts from all over the world have written and lectured on the topic of climate change, and it has been the central focus of important global events held for its study. The truth is that there is disagreement about its causes, a situation that has hindered efforts to address it successfully, as has been seen in the last two UN climate meetings.

What is undeniable is that it exists, and beyond focusing solely on its causes, we must also study the mechanisms for addressing it, especially in our Latin American and Caribbean region, which has suffered the most from its catastrophic impacts.

The challenges facing humanity are of a magnitude never before seen in history.

* Climate change with its terrifying prospects; * Pandemics like COVID-19, and those predicted to recur and potentially be even more severe; * Wars with their devastating effects; * The terrible tragedy of migration; * the scarcity of fresh water; * drug trafficking; * desertification; not to mention the accelerated and widespread increase in weapons of mass destruction, etc., are all examples of this new reality.

Unfortunately, the world lacks functional structures to successfully address these serious challenges. The organization called upon to fulfill this role, the United Nations, having been established for a post-war reality, very different from the current one, has become outdated and powerless in the face of the scale of these new objectives.

A new structure is needed for a planet with more than 190 nations, home to more than eight billion people, and whose consequences, as we have seen in the COVID-19 pandemic and the current effects of climate change, affect everyone.

In any New International Order that emerges from this reality, the countries of the Latin American and Caribbean region must play a decisive role, effectively representing the interests of more than 650 million people living in over 20 million square kilometers.

This will only be possible with the unity of our countries. This has become an urgent necessity, not only in the face of the new global geopolitics, but also in the face of the challenge posed by environmental degradation, especially with the phenomenon of Climate Change, whose disastrous magnitude has already been demonstrated by experience.

Our region has suffered catastrophic blows in recent years as a consequence of Climate Change. Gigantic floods such as those in Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, Bahía Blanca in Argentina, the Amazon and the Pacific coast in Colombia, and in Central America; devastating droughts in the Pantanal, Brazil, the Dry Corridor in Central America, and the highlands of Bolivia and Paraguay; Enormous forest fires in Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, and Mexico; not to mention the devastation caused by hurricanes in the Atlantic.

As our motto states: "The environment in which our children and grandchildren live will be a consequence of what we do today."