Opinion: Canceling the Debts of Global South Nations: A Necessary Part of the Worldwide Climate Effort. Part 1

Love, Justice and Climate Change

We finally have a fairly widespread understanding that we must stop burning fossil fuels to solve the climate crisis.  It is just as true that we must cancel the debts of Global South nations to solve the climate crisis. There is no other way. I recognize that statement will strike some of you as radical or unreasonable. It’s taken me some time to reach this conclusion. In this post I’ll try to show how I, and others, have arrived at this position.

We know that emissions anywhere cause climate change everywhere. That means that humanity must stop emissions everywhere.

We must stop emissions in the wealthy, developed nations (the Global North) that have been the primary cause of the climate crisis. But that will not be sufficient.  By 2030, 50% of all global emissions will come from the poorer nations that we collectively term the “Global South” (not including China). Eliminating emissions from the Global South is key to solving the climate crisis and will improve public health and prosperity in those nations.

Many Global South Nations Are in a Debt Crisis
Nearly 60 countries of the Global South are in debt distress or at risk of it and are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. As the CEPR (Center for Economic and Policy Research) reports, “The combined burden of the climate crisis and increasing debt, perpetuated by an unfair international financial architecture, is a recipe for economic and social devastation: as climate disasters strike, these countries are being forced into choosing between servicing debt and saving lives. … [S]ervicing debt is a direct obstacle to these countries’ ability to respond to climate disasters and to finance basic services and long-term development needs.”

Money Is Moving from the Poor to the Rich
In 2022 the developing nations paid $443.5 billion in debt service, most of it to the Global North. In Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, the amount required for debt service is more than half of all government revenues. That’s money moving from the Global South to the Global North.

I was raised to believe it is important to repay your debts. However, there are times when that is not just, equitable, or even possible. To insist that the current debts of the Global South be repaid is to insist that the poor of the world give more money to the rich of the world. It is also to insist that debt repayment is more important than solving the climate crisis that threatens us all. I don’t think that is a morally justifiable stance.

Illegitimate Debts
According to ODI, a global affairs think tank, “The current debt crisis did not emerge because governments mismanaged public finances.”

Many of the debts are illegitimate in one way or another.  Some are from loans made to dictators or governments known to be corrupt and did not benefit the people of the nations now expected to repay them. Some were made with conditions attached that damaged the domestic economies of the borrowing nations while creating profitable conditions for the donor nations. Many required that the money that was loaned be spent in the donor country, so that the donor country’s economy thrived while the poor nation accrued more debt. Some had unfair terms and some were promoted dishonestly.

Often the poor countries were forced to borrow because of conditions over which they had no control. Some loans go back to the 1970’s when the OPEC countries increased the cost of oil dramatically and many poor countries had to borrow to be able to import the oil needed to keep their economies functioning. The COVID crisis required virtually all nations to expand expenditures, but the poor countries could only meet the basic needs of their people by borrowing.

Loss and damage from catastrophic weather events caused by climate change has forced many Global South nations to borrow funds just to help their people survive. This is especially unjust since climate change was caused by the wealthy nations who are now extracting even more wealth from the poor nations through debt service.

[This is Part 1 of a 2-part post. Part 2 will be posted here during the week of March 18. If you would like to read both parts of the post together now, the full text is available now here.

Russ Vernon-Jones was principal of Fort River School 1990-2008 and is currently a member of the Steering Committee of Climate Action Now-Western Massachusetts. He blogs regularly on climate justice at www.russvernonjones.org.