Developed countries of the global North owe an ecological debt to the countries of the global South. In addition to producing the largest historical levels of greenhouse gas emissions, they continue to exploit and colonise the majority of the global South today through the systematic theft of natural resources by their multinational enterprises.
100 multinational corporations are said to be in charge of 71 per cent of the world’s industrial emissions, according to research. A significant portion of these emissions supports a system of excessive consumption and production among the privileged elites of wealthy nations at the expense of the increasing destruction and sacrifice of populations in the South.
These same high-emitting nations are responsible for exploiting, colonising and enslaving much of the rest of the world for centuries. Thus, Debt for Climate demands that the richest countries of the Global North begin to pay their climate debt, and this encompasses the demands for reparations, loss and damage, and climate finance, which must not come in the form of loans but as interest-free payments. Debt for Climate demands the unconditional cancellation of illegitimate debts, often awarded illegally and unconstitutionally. The Conference of Parties (COP 27) in Egypt had vowed to pay the cost of loss and damage brought by climate-induced catastrophes such as floods but nothing has been said about climate justice.
Global South countries, as well as some peripheral countries within the global North itself, are being economically strangled by massive financial debts granted by international financial institutions under the control of the wealthiest global North countries, such as the IMF, the World Bank, the Paris Club, etc.
It is time to put JUSTICE at the forefront of the environmental movement.
Financial strangulation translates into political strangulation for the benefit of the interests of the developed countries that control these organizations and their companies, employing well-known mechanisms of debt-trap diplomacy to deepen the neocolonial plundering of the natural resources of the subjugated countries. In many cases, these are also odious debts, obtained illegally and /or through corruption, oftentimes unconstitutionally, with de facto governments, and/or in violation of the statutes of the credit organizations themselves.
Argentina became an emblematic case of resistance against debt-trap colonialism when, in 2001, mass popular uprisings ousted the government and its IMF-dictated policies, leading to a default and renegotiation of the debt. In a tragic twist of history, 20 years later, Argentina finds itself again in the grips of the IMF, which granted the largest loan in its history (U$S 44 Billion).
There is a global movement calling for colonial reparations, loss and damage, and the cancellation of the international debts of impoverished nations and these voices are multiplying almost daily, especially after the enormous economic blow caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, it is unlikely that the same countries responsible for the historical plunder and colonialism that control the international lending agencies will give in to such demands out of mere goodwill and generosity.
Debts are financial assets whose repayment depends on the sovereign states that have contracted them. Together, our social, labour and climate movements from South to North can build enough pressure on the streets from both sides of the spectrum to create the necessary political will to cancel the debts within the framework of the climate crisis.
The IMF and the World Bank have already incorporated the concept of the “Green Debt Swap.” Similar initiatives exist in other organizations. However, this has much more to do with greenwashing tactics, green colonialism and potential eco-austerity policies – not true financial decolonization or climate action initiatives that affect their real economic interests or those of their corporations.
During the G-7 summit that took place in Germany from June 26 to 28, we exposed their bluff with our global mass actions, where thousands of workers and climate activists joined forces on the streets to demand the cancellation of the debt of the Global South. The G7 comprises the world’s wealthiest economies that govern most international financial institutions and hold the power to change their policies in the necessary direction if enough pressure is applied on the streets everywhere.
Debt for Climate can be very destabilizing to the dominant narrative because it is a campaign that is being driven by the global South and worker formations like labour unions. This might influence the course of the climate movement if handled and carried out properly. It is time to put JUSTICE at the forefront of the environmental movement and lay the groundwork for real change to occur. There is simply no room or money to support a just transition as long as nations are caught in debt traps. The necessary clean slate that permits genuine and self-determined change, led from the bottom up and no longer top-down, is to cancel the debt at the same time as funding leaving fossil fuels where they belong-underground.
The writer is a student.