Existing Global Financial System Exhausted, Not Up to New Challenges - French President

PARIS (Sputnik) - The existing global financial system is outdated and does not meet the new challenges, while the new system must be adopted and aligned with the world's goals, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.

"Our world is undergoing ever greater upheaval... We have a financial system which is the product of a previous consensus, which has shown its effectiveness, and bailed us out in past decades, but is probably not evolving fast enough. It is no longer adapted, and needs to be realigned with our goals," Macron said at the opening of a New Global Financial Pact summit in Paris, which was streamed on the official website of the event.

Macron noted that no country had to choose whether to fight poverty or protect the planet and each country should be free to choose its own way, hence the new financial pact had to respect the sovereignty of the countries of the South much more.

"We will take a major step, as we will start by establishing a new consensus. The fight against poverty, the decarbonization of our economy in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and the protection of biodiversity, are closely intertwined. We therefore need to agree together on the best means to address these challenges in the poor and emerging countries of the developing world, when it comes to the amount of investment, to comprehensive reform of infrastructure like the World Bank, the IMF, and public and private funds, and how to set a new process in motion," Macron said.

Macron also said that the private sector had a big role to play, but it needed to receive credible guarantees.

The president added that the summit should result in concrete solutions that would change the lives of countries struggling with climate challenges and suggested setting up a follow-up mechanism.

The summit in Paris, which runs from June 22-23, aims to establish new agreements between the countries of the Global North and the Global South and to combat climate change and the global crisis.