MOMBASA, 21 Mar: African countries saddled with debt and ravaged by losses and damages from weather events like cyclones, drought and extreme temperatures have agreed to consider swapping debt to invest in climate action in a meeting of finance ministers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
\nThe \u201cdebt-for-climate swap\u201d option is an economic tool that allows a country\u2019s debt to be reduced in exchange for commitments on green investments. It was among several alternative green financing models discussed at the ongoing United Nations conference for finance and economic ministers that supporters say would boost funds to adapt to climate harms, protect nature and finance local communities.
\nIt comes as many African nations are battling with the effects of costly climate change-fueled events like the ongoing drought in eastern Africa that has killed thousands and decimated livelihoods reliant on rain-fed agriculture and the aftermath of the devastating Cyclone Freddy in the south that\u2019s left hundreds dead and thousands of others displaced.
\nEgyptian finance minister Mohamed Maait said that his country is one of many that is now having to add heavy climate costs to budgets stretched thin by external debt \u2014 which takes up to 17% of countries\u2019 spending in some cases \u2014 and other basic needs.
\n\u201cWhat am asking every day and every hour is where do I get the money to protect our people from climate extremes,\u201d Maait said, adding that borrowing was often the only option for some nations.
\nYet \u201cmany countries simply cannot access international financial markets because of rising interest rates,\u201d Hanan Morsy, the chief economist of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa told the roundtable Monday evening. Morsy added that private sector investments in climate finance are lower in Africa than in any other part of the world.
\nMinisters also discussed bonds that would help increase private financial flows as well as \u201cblended finance\u201d models that would combine development funds and private capital as potential solutions for climate funding.
\nInterest in green finance has been growing, along with criticism that current mechanisms don\u2019t work for countries ravaged by climate extremes but have contributed little to the planet-warming emissions in the atmosphere.
\nIn 2022 the International Monetary Fund established a $50 billion climate loan pot to help low and middle-income nations access affordable and longer-term financing to respond to shocks associated with climate change. Rwanda became the first African nation to receive a loan of $319 million. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOMBASA, 21 Mar: African countries saddled with debt and ravaged by losses and damages from weather events like cyclones, drought and extreme temperatures have agreed to consider swapping debt to invest in climate action in a meeting of finance ministers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The \u201cdebt-for-climate swap\u201d option is an economic tool that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-213289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}