Climate Debt: Nigerian Activists, Others Demand $5 Trillion From Rich Countries

Activists in Nigeria and the rest of the world are holding hundreds of climate actions today to call on governments in the Global North to pay up $5 trillion annually as a down payment towards their climate debt to the countries, people and communities of the Global South who are the least responsible for climate disaster but are the most affected. 

The Global North consists of the world’s developed countries, whereas the Global South comprises the world’s developing countries and least developed ones.

Climate activists say wealthy countries, responsible for over 75% of global accumulated emissions since the start of industrialisation, have an obligation to support developing countries’ climate action and pay for climate adaptation, the loss and damage caused by the impacts of climate disaster, and for a just transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy and climate-resilient societies. 

A 2023 study shows that by 2050 the Global North will owe $192 trillion in fair reparations to the Global South – even if the planet can limit warming to an average 1.5°C. 

That breaks down to an annual climate debt of US$5 trillion owed by wealthy countries to poorer ones.

The protest actions represent the climax of a global week of action ahead of Climate Week NYC, with civil society groups calling on rich countries to pay compensation for their decades of reckless fossil fuel consumption that is causing rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and widespread destruction that disproportionately impacts the Global South. Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Pacific Islands & the Caribbean pay the price with lost lives, destroyed infrastructure, crop failure, landslides, and ruined livelihoods. 

Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), said: ‘’Ideally, payment for historical liabilities should be without debate. 

“On the principles of fairness, equity and collective consideration, countries whose development was on the wings of carbon and at the expense of vulnerable countries in the Global South should need no force to make and increase commitment to climate finance. Since their moods are reflective of deliberate avoidance, we are committed to forcing dialogue on them.”

A new global goal on climate finance will be one of the key areas of negotiation at the UN COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan in November. Given this climate debt, Global North countries need to come ready to commit to trillions and not billions.

Gina Cortés Valderrama, Co-Facilitator UNFCCC Women and Gender Constituency, said: “For too long, climate finance has been framed as an act of benevolence from the rich to the poor. But what we truly face is an ecological crisis fueled by imperialism and militarism, underpinned by centuries of continued colonial exploitation. 

“At COP29 it’s time to reframe climate finance as a matter of justice, not charity. The Global North owes an ecological debt, and their financial obligation must be paid up by providing grant support – not more loans that trap the majority of the world in unsustainable debt that undermines human rights and force austerity measures that reduce social protections, pushing women and LGBTQIAGnC persons deeper into inequality and capitalist exploitation. Climate finance cannot continue to be a tool for control – it must be an instrument of reparative justice.”

Despite countries agreeing at last year’s COP28 in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels, the Global North continues to focus on its own economic growth with new oil, gas and coal expansion instead of the necessary rapid reduction in emissions or the necessary scaled-up finance. This just adds to their growing climate debt. They should stop all expansion and new investment plans for fossil fuels.

Lidy Nacpil, Co-ordinator of the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development and the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, said:“It is unconscionable that Global North governments have continuously rejected their responsibility to deliver adequate climate finance  for the Global South. If developed nations are serious about solving the problem of climate change, as they claim to be, they should agree to a climate finance target that covers the costs of mitigation, adaptation, just transition, and loss and damage. The Global South is owed trillions–not billions.”