Statement by the President of the Republic of Brazil at the Urban20 meeting*

It is key that this meeting is taking place right before the G20 Leaders Summit.

For thousands of years, urban settlements have attracted the hopes of millions of people.

Their markets and trade places are contact points among societies that are often physically distant.

From their universities, great innovations have emerged.

On their streets and squares, ideas become reality.

Municipalities are the catalysts of profound changes.

More than half of the world's population live in cities that generate 80% of the global GDP.

Some megalopolises such as New York, Santiago, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro produce more wealth than many entire countries.

At the same time, impoverished villages fight against the exodus of their youth to stay alive and financially viable.

Throughout the cities, adjectives tend to be superlative. The same happens with the contrasts.

This is particularly true in Latin America, which, according to the UNDP, is the world's most unequal continent and has experienced one of the most accelerated processes of urbanization in History.

The immense wealth generated in the megalopolises does not reach the pockets of the workers who live in them. The knowledge generated often does not reach their children.

The three priority axes chosen by the Brazilian G20 Presidency speak directly to the challenges faced by thousands of mayors across the planet in their cities’ day-to-day lives.

Combating inequalities, hunger, and poverty is essential for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 11 on inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities.

In ever more unequal societies, the place where one lives determines their access to education, health, work, and public safety.

From the Utopia Warehouse we can see the Morro da Providência, Brazil’s most ancient favela.

We are also only ten Kilometers from the Favela da Maré, the birthplace of City Councilor Marielle Franco, who was barbarically murdered for advocating for the right to the city and for human rights – and to whom I pay tribute. 

One fourth of the planet's inhabitants live in precarious settlements.

In Brazil, black women are the majority in these territories.

Their children are the primary victims of inequality and urban violence, which every year costs a number of lives similar to those in the most violent wars.

For this reason, I have been advocating for a new federative pact which engages all the Powers to place public safety as a national priority and to keep our youth alive.

We are also implementing a new stage of our major housing program, Minha Casa, Minha Vida, which  integrates innovative approaches to incentivize a more sustainable housing market.

Marielle's fight for a more inclusive city, for a transformative public education, and for access to quality public services for all is an imperative to create sustainable cities that tend to everyone's needs.

Urban planning is also going to have a crucial role in the ecological transition and in the fight against climate change – our second priority at the G20.

Cities are responsible for 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions and 75% of global energy consumption.

These same urban centers are disproportionately exposed to the consequences of climate change, to the rise of ocean levels, to heat waves, to hydric insecurity, and to devastating floods, such as the ones we have seen recently in Southern Brazil, in Colombia, and in Spain.  

Climate action can serve as a tool for a more encompassing urban agenda for inclusion and social justice.

The ecological transition is an invaluable opportunity to generate jobs and income for the youth in major urban centers.

Cities cannot finance urban transformation alone.

They cannot be neglected by the new financing mechanisms of the climate transition.

Unfortunately, the governments have come across a huge financing hiatus in the Global South.

Only part of the necessary resources reaches the developing countries and an even smaller portion reaches our megalopolises.

There is a deficit in urban financing that is not able to keep up with the pace of unplanned urbanization in many parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

For this reason, the third priority of the Brazilian G20 Presidency is the global governance reform, including its financial architecture and that of Multilateral Development Banks.

It will not be possible to build a New Urban Agenda without investment and without adequate multilateral governance.

We are proud to have Brazilian national Anacláudia Rossbach ahead of UN-Habitat. Her leadership will be pivotal in supporting national and local governments to face the urban crisis, based on robust public policies backed by science. Welcome, dear Ana, and good luck to you.

Talking about governance reform also implicates repudiating the destruction caused by wars.

The Gaza Strip, one of humanity's most ancient urban settlements (4000 B.C), has had two thirds of its territory destroyed by indiscriminate bombings. 80% of its health facilities no longer exist.

Beneath the rubble lie over 40,000 lives lost.

There will be no peace in the cities if there is no peace in the world.

My friends,

Cities concentrate challenges, but they also provide the solutions we seek for. 

They are the homes of the agents of change who will bring about the transformation we seek.

The presence here today of so many mayors, women and men, is proof that the local governments are willing and able to do their part.

The C-40, which presently counts on almost 100 affiliated cities, is dedicated to facing the climate crisis and contributing to limit global warming to one and a half degrees Celsius while also building healthy, equal, and resilient communities.

Brazil has over five thousand municipalities. Every year, these local leaders go to Brasilia for the Mayors National March to present their demands. 

We must listen to the voices of the cities. I am confident that the works of this U20 meeting will be most productive.

As composer Hilton Acioli says: “A city seems small compared to a country, but it is in mine, and in yours that we begin to be happy.”

Thank you very much.

*Check against delivery.