Responding to David Lammy's climate accouncement in London today, Jennifer Larbie, Christian Aid's Head of UK Advocacy and Campaigns, said:
"Today’s announcement that climate action will be at the heart of all UK foreign policy is a welcome step but any plans to mobilise more private finance to help vulnerable communities could have devastating unintended consequences.
"The debt burden facing lower income countries prevents governments from addressing the needs of their people or responding to the climate emergency. More private finance given in the form of loans, not grants, would create a crisis on top of a crisis.
"According to Christian Aid research, 34 African countries spend more on external debt payments than on health or education, as the continent experiences its worst debt crisis in a generation.
"What is needed – which the Government must press for at COP29 in a few months’ time – is ambitious publicly-funded finance commitments. Polluters must pay so that communities who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are not left to bear the full burden of it."
Notes to editors:
Interviews available in London: 07778 109774 mediacomms@christian-aid.org
Christian Aid’s debt research is available here
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