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Dear friend, I'm writing about our new campaign on Climate Debt. Rich industrialised nations are responsible for causing climate change, yet it is poor countries that are suffering its worst effects. We believe that rich countries owe poor countries an enormous 'climate debt', both for the damage climate change will do and is doing to poor countries, and for the extra costs they will face in fighting poverty without following the same high-carbon path as the rich world. At next month's UN climate summit in Copenhagen, the countries of the world will try to salvage a new agreement to tackle climate change, including how to pay for the changes that are needed. Outrageously, rich countries are currently offering even more loans to 'help' poor countries deal with climate change. What's more, they're proposing that the World Bank - central to the Third World Debt crisis - is in charge of this lending. That's why we're joining with others in the UK and around the world in an effort to put economic justice at the heart of the global climate talks. A just climate deal at Copenhagen would provide grants not loans, so that poor countries can develop sustainably and cope with the impacts of climate change. An unjust deal could sink poor countries into another downward spiral of debt. See below for more about the Climate Debt campaign. We've got a speaker tour around the UK this week, we've launched a new report which calculates the UK's climate debt, and our new action card is a climate debt invoice to Gordon Brown. We've also got some exciting plans for Copenhagen itself - watch this space. Thanks for everything you do, Jonathan Stevenson
Jubilee Debt Campaign P.S. Earlier this month African delegates walked out of the Barcelona climate talks in protest at the lack of seriousness from rich countries. Read Nick Dearden and Tim Jones's article on how climate change is transforming global politics here. |
