Unjust debt is stopping lower income countries, those least responsible, from confronting the climate crisis.
Global South debts are being made worse because of Covid and last year alone lower income countries spent $372 billion in repayments. This crushing weight means there’s little left to tackle the climate crisis.
On top of this, climate disasters like hurricanes are happening at a rate of one per week, with the impacts set to cost up to $300 billion a year.
That’s why countries in the global South are demanding action.
“SIDS (small island developing states) are sinking, and it’s not due to just the sea level rise and climate change. We are actually sinking in debt,” – Lois Young, Belize’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
Some funds are being offered, but not nearly enough and most of it, shamefully, as new loans.
There’s no way out of the climate crisis without confronting the debt crisis.