Transforming the Global Financial System to Address the Climate & Debt Crises
Transforming the Global Financial System to Address the Climate & Debt Crises - A Climate Vulnerable Perspective
13.04.2023 Washington D.C.
A panel discussion at the margins of the IMF/World Bank 2023 Spring Meetings on Thursday, 13. April 2023 at the Boston University Washington Office
Speakers:
Moderation: Red Constantino - Deputy Chair, CVF Expert Advisory Group
Kevin P. Gallagher – Director, Boston University Global Development Policy Center and Member of Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF
Sara Jane Ahmed - Founder, Financial Futures Centre (FFC)
Kairos dela Cruz - Executive Director, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC)
Jwala Rambarran - Policy Advisor, The Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC)
Vositha Wijenayake - Executive Director, SLYCAN Trust
About the Event: Climate-fueled risks have driven up the cost of capital and debt to unsustainable levels, especially across climate-vulnerable economies, worsening already dire financial protection gaps. As disasters strike, countries are forced to borrow to replace bridges, homes, or jobs that were lost. V20 countries have lost over half a trillion US dollars in the last two decades due to climate change, and over the period of 2022-2029, total debt service payments for V20 countries will be over half a trillion. The losses are exacerbated by vulnerability,y while the financing options are shrinking. In 2023, reform of the financial architecture will be critical in determining the access and options for countries as climate chaos unfolds.
A key opportunity to avert climate chaos includes the delivery of the V20-initiated Accra-Marrakech agenda. Part of this reform is improving the climate and disaster risk financing architecture to better protect people and communities without increasing debt instability. This session discusses initiatives addressing these intertwined crises and explores the role civil society actors can play to support this transformation.
Session objectives:
Discuss the interconnectedness of debt and the climate crisis.
Discuss global financial system reform and initiatives addressing these crises; and
Discuss the role civil society can play to further the reform of the Global Financial System.
