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Africa Climate Summit: New Policy Brief on Africa’s Vicious Cyle of Debt and Climate
September 09, 2025
Accelerating Global Climate Solutions: Financing for Africa’s Resilient and Green Development – this is the theme of the Second African Climate Summit now underway in Addis Ababa. The summit comes at a crucial moment, aiming to advance reforms that can scale up grant-based climate finance while strengthening national and local systems to effectively manage and deliver funds.
Africa contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it faces some of the harshest impacts of the climate crisis. Cyclones in Mozambique, drought in the Horn of Africa, and rising seas threatening cities from Lagos to Alexandria show the urgency of climate finance that is accessible, predictable, and geared toward resilience.
In a new policy brief, Alexander Dryden and Ulrich Volz highlight the vicious cycle many African countries are caught in: climate finance needs in Sub-Saharan Africa exceed US$1.4 trillion this decade, yet actual flows average only US$35 billion per year – more than half of which comes as debt rather than grants. In 2023, African governments devoted an average of 13 percent of total expenditure to debt service, double the level of 2012.
New Study: Debt, Climate and Development in Asia and the Pacific
July 31, 2025
Mounting debt burdens, the accelerating climate crisis, and persistent underdevelopment are converging to create a perfect storm for many Asian and Pacific nations. In a new working paper for the Asian Development Bank Institute Ulrich Volz, Shamshad Akhtar and Alex Dryden examine how the region’s debt vulnerabilities are worsening—driven by climate disasters and structural development gaps.
The study calls for bold multilateral action—combining new liquidity provisions, affordable development finance, systemic reforms to the international financial architecture, and, where necessary, sovereign debt relief to put the region back on a path to sustainable growth.
Sovereign Debt Reform Gathers Pace — But Will It Be Enough?
July 02, 2025
Momentum for reforming the international sovereign debt system is accelerating. From the Compromiso de Sevilla, adopted at the UN Financing for Development Conference, to the Jubilee Commission’s call for a new HIPC-style initiative, recent weeks have seen major developments. Global South countries pushed for deep structural reform, and while not all demands made it into the final Seville outcome, the document still includes several important provisions on debt coordination, sustainability, and climate resilience.
The Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery (DRGR) initiative has long advocated many of these reforms—and offers in the blog a critical assessment of what the Seville commitment delivers, where it falls short, and what needs to happen next. The blog also reflects on the latest report by the UN Secretary-General’s Expert Group on Debt and shares important project updates.
