Almost 200 organisations call on global leaders to take greater action on interrelated crises

190 organisations, including Jubilee Scotland, have released a joint statement calling on world leaders to tackle the interrelated climate and debt crises that are blighting the lives of people in the poorest countries. 

The statement – which was published on the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction – launches a new movement of climate and debt activists who are coming together to call for greater action from world leaders under the banner: No Climate Justice without Debt Justice

It calls for urgent action by governments, public and private international institutions in order to tackle the ever-growing debt and climate crises. It also recognises that the wealthiest countries owe a climate debt to the global south and calls for reparations, including delivery of climate finance obligations. . 

Urgent actions include: 

• Urgent delivery of new and additional, non-debt creating, unconditional climate finance beyond the unfulfilled $100 billion per year target; 
• Immediate action to implement ambitious unconditional debt cancellation of unsustainable and illegitimate debts.
• Ensuring debt repayments are automatically suspended when a climate extreme event hits a country in the global south.

Iolanda Fresnillo, Policy and Advocacy Manager at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) said: “The countries most affected by climate extreme events have been left with almost no option but to borrow to finance climate mitigation and adaptation, even though they are not the main polluters. At the same time many of these countries have accumulated unsustainable debt levels and struggle to deliver basic services to their people, needless to say to invest in climate resilience. 

“We have joined organisations from around the world working on debt justice and climate justice to call for consolidated action on these interrelated issues. Without more joined-up action countries in the global south will not be able to find a way out of this vicious cycle.”

Campaign Director at Jubilee Scotland, Line Christensen, commented; “at Jubilee Scotland we believe that there can be no Climate Justice without Debt justice! Global South countries devastated by climate related disasters and impacted by climate changes have almost no options but to borrow – and get into further debt – to handle disasters and  finance climate adaptation. This is a unjust and unsustainable!”

We call to you join the campaign by getting involved in a Twitter storm linked to the Global Climate Strike set for October 22nd under the hashtag #climatedebtjustice. You can also take action via our Take Action webpage.