The Cuban Minister of Science, Technology, and the Environment, Armando Rodríguez Batista, presented on July 15 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris “eight guiding proposals regarding scientific policies for sustainable development,” according to a report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba.
Rodríguez Batista spoke during the high-level ministerial segment of the World Conference of the International Decade of Science for Sustainable Development (2024-2033), which was inaugurated that day, in front of representatives from governments, UN agencies, and universities from around the world, the source indicated.
The intervention took place one day after the fifth total collapse of the National Electric System this year: the total blackout on July 14 left the island without electricity just hours before its minister spoke at the international forum.
Only six days before the conference, Cuba had registered a historic maximum electricity deficit of 2,341 MW, the highest figure ever documented in the country. In July 2026, power outages average between twenty and twenty-four hours daily, and in some provinces they extend beyond 40 consecutive hours.
In this context, the minister recalled before UNESCO Fidel Castro's premise that the country's future should be "of people of science," and he described a system of science, technology, and innovation as a public policy supposedly in the service of national development.
Among the eight proposals are the consolidation of national science and innovation systems—highlighting that Cuba has around 50 universities and a wide network of research centers—scientific support for environmental decisions, participatory governance of science, and the development of capabilities to protect intellectual property and access international funding.
As an example of "mission-oriented innovation," the minister highlighted the development of Cuba's own vaccines against COVID-19 and mentioned the State Plan for Addressing Climate Change, known as Tarea Vida, noting that approximately 20% of the national territory is designated as some category of protected area.
The eighth proposal served as a platform to for the country's ills. "The economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the Government of the United States continues to be the main obstacle to the sustainable development of Cuba and a serious limitation for scientific development and international cooperation," stated the head of CITMA, according to the Minrex note.
To illustrate the impact of the sanctions, the minister referred to an image that accurately described daily life in Cuba: “Imagine having to run a research center or a hospital without electricity,” he said before the UNESCO audience. However, the official was careful not to address the regime's responsibility for the situation that scientists, doctors, and students on the island face every day.
The University of Havana suspended its in-person classes in February 2026 due to fuel shortages and power outages, and the Ministry of Higher Education postponed the university entrance exams scheduled for June, in anticipation of the 2026-2027 academic year.
This diplomatic pattern is not new. In April 2026, Cuba's representative to UNESCO, Dulce Buergo, had already repeated the same rhetoric of blaming the embargo while the country was experiencing power outages of up to 25 hours a day. Rodríguez Batista himself had acknowledged the waste crisis in the capital in September 2025 with a telling statement: "That garbage is not contained: it is spread all over Havana."
Mass emigration has reduced the Cuban population from 11 million to just over 8 million inhabitants, food production has fallen by 60%, and medicine reserves are at 30% of normal levels. In such a scenario at home, a Cuban government official spoke in Paris about "sustainable development."
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