At Node i+i, trade and and integration experts addressed the issue of social inclusion and how greater regional integration can contribute to achieving greater equality.

Trade is increasingly important in the global economy. What structural changes has LAC seen over the past 15 years?
In his presentation, Antoni Estevadeordal, Manager of the Integration and Trade Sector at the IDB, explains the growth in trade between LAC and Asia, which has become the region’s main trading partner: it currently accounts for 22% of LAC’s trade, and this percentage is expected to increase to 33% over the next decade. He also underlined the opportunity generated by trade between developing countries—known as South-South trade—which was virtually non-existent 20 years ago and today stands at 20%.


 

Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’s most recent encyclical, was one of the documents that was most cited during the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that concluded in Paris on December 12, 2015.

In his presentation, Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican, analyzed and outlined the main arguments of Laudato Si’, which he defined as an encyclical that is not just about nature but also about society.