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Raul Castro's Address to Petrocaribe Summit - Dec 21, 2007
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Granma Daily - Dec 22, 2007
ADDRESS BY RAUL CASTRO, HEAD OF THE CUBAN DELEGATION
TO THE PETROCARIBE SUMMIT
CIENFUEGOS, CUBA, DECEMBER 21ST, 2007
Dear Presidents, Prime Ministers and Heads of delegations:
First of all, I would like to welcome you to this city of Cienfuegos,
located in the centre of Cuba and widely known not only for its history
and fighting spirit but also for its progress in the last 45 years.
This has earned it a place among the most developed territories with
the greatest potential.
We, the countries of the Caribbean Basin, are holding today a most
significant meeting.
At a time when the oil prices have broken every record creating an
extremely complex situation to most of the oil im****ting Third World
nations, the member countries of PETROCARIBE are in a privileged
position.
These countries enjoy the benefits of a mechanism giving them
preferential access, at fair prices, to the energy resources that
guarantee our peoples daily lives and prospective development.
It is, therefore, necessary that this initiative resulting from the
spirit of solidarity of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its
President, comrade Hugo Chavez Frias, is continually consolidated and
fully developed.
The present world situation and the impact of the policies pursued by
the big industrial powers are definitely conducive to reflection and
comparisons.
There is no doubt that growing consumerism in the industrial nations
has had and will continue to have a devastating impact on the planet,
if it is not arrested.
In just a few years, that wasteful and polluting consumerism has
depleted many sources of hydrocarbons that it took nature hundreds of
millions of years to ac***ulate. It has also caused a climate change
which is today a source of deep concern since entire nations could be
vanished off the face of the Earth. Likewise, it has bred wars since no
one doubts that oil control has been the cause of the invasion and
occupation of foreign territories; and this danger is not over, yet.
But, as worrisome as the present consequences of these consumption
patterns are the attempts by the industrial nations to ex****t them to
our countries, in order to turn us all into societies as wasteful and
polluting as theirs, to turn us all into global predators of Nature.
The recent developments at the Conference of the Parties of the Kyoto
Protocol held in Bali are clear proof that there are governments
- --particularly that of the country which wastes and pollutes the most"
that are not willing to renounce the privileges they have forcibly
appropriated throughout centuries and the plundering of the natural
resources of the South countries, not even for the sake of humanitys
salvation.
At the present juncture, projects like PETROCARIBE which not only are
designed and operate to ensure the energy safety of all its members and
promote their sustainable development, become all the more relevant.
In the case of Cuba, a key element adds to the energy safety component:
saving. During the last few years we have successfully worked to design
and implement an energy-saving strategy which has allowed us to promote
the rational and ever more efficient use of hydrocarbons.
We have carried out a true energy revolution, and the experiences
derives from it have been successfully implemented in several sister
nations and made available to PETROCARIBE thanks to the keen
discernment, ingenuity and perseverance of comrade Fidel.
As some of our guests know, we have expanded our generation capacity by
using the petroleum gas which was burned before, thus contributing to
mitigate environmental pollution in a significant area in the country.
Another crucial element of this conception is the development of a
program to generate electricity for domestic consumption using less
fuel as compared to the former generation schemes of our thermo-power
stations.
We have also installed more than 4,000 emergency generation sets in
several vital centres which can now operate independently from the main
grid if necessary.
Simultaneously, we have implemented national projects to encourage
energy saving among the population; we have massively replaced highly
consuming domestic appliances and bulbs with more efficient ones.
Besides, we have continued to work in the development of renewable
sources of energy, namely, wind energy, biomass, hydro-energy, and
solar energy, the use of which is increasingly growing in our country.
Solar energy has been particularly useful to supply electricity to
schools, private houses and other facilities in very remote areas.
Up until the end of November this year, 31 projects to replace
incandescent bulbs with energy-saving bulbs have been either completed
or in progress in 13 member countries of PETROCARIBE, thus preventing
major disbursements which would have been otherwise necessary to
increase the generation capacity and the purchase of fuel.
Likewise, in the countries here represented, projects are being
implemented to build, assemble, and commission more than 1,000
additional megawatts using diesel and fuel oil-powered generation sets,
refurbish the grids, train technicians and specialists, organize the
operation and maintenance of power stations, evaluate the use of
renewable sources of energy and the energy potential, among many others.
We are confident that this Summit will contribute to further
consolidate this highly beneficial meeting for all our nations.
At the present international juncture, thanks to the solidarity of the
Bolivarian Venezuela, PETROCARIBE is much more than a fair solution to
the serious energy problem facing small countries which lack
hydrocarbon resources of their own. More than anything else, we see in
this agreement a decisive step in the path towards a further
development of all integration and cooperation efforts in our region.
Therefore, Cuba will continue to offer its modest and selfless all-out
contribution to the attainment of this lofty and strategic endeavor. We
strongly believe in solidarity, cooperation and the collective capacity
to develop ourselves for the wellbeing of our peoples.
Thank you, very much.
*
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