{"id":2858,"date":"2025-11-17T11:54:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T09:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/?p=2858"},"modified":"2025-11-17T16:39:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T14:39:47","slug":"press-statement-for-cop20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/?p=2858","title":{"rendered":"Press statement for COP30"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As the world sets its sights on Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, for COP30, the Afro-Asian Green Forum (AA+ GF) sees a<br>familiar script being prepared. Once again, the nations of the Global South\u2014those least responsible<br>for the climate crisis\u2014will arrive with our survival on the line, urging the wealthy, high-emitting<br>nations of the Global North to finally honor their long-standing financial commitments.<br>But this time, the conversation must shift. We will no longer accept a narrative that treats climate<br>finance as mere charity. The central, unaddressed issue that poisons every negotiation is the<br>crushing sovereign debt that shackles our economies and paralyzes our ability to act.<br>The Vicious Cycle: Paying Creditors Instead of Protecting Our People<br>For countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the<br>climate crisis and the debt crisis are two sides of the same coin. This is the brutal arithmetic we face:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Climate Shocks Drain Our Treasuries: A single cyclone, a prolonged drought, or catastrophic<br>flooding can wipe out years of development gains. We are forced to spend billions on emergency<br>relief and reconstruction\u2014money that was earmarked for healthcare, education, and infrastructure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Borrowing to Survive: With our budgets devastated, we have no choice but to take on new, often<br>expensive debt to rebuild our shattered communities and economies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Debt Trap Tightens: A significant portion of our national revenue now goes not to climate-<br>resilient infrastructure or a just energy transition, but to servicing external debt. We are literally<br>paying our historical polluters for the privilege of drowning and burning. This is not a hypothetical.<br>We are forced to choose between building a sea wall and paying interest to an international bank.<br>This is an immoral choice that no nation should ever have to make.<br>COP30: The Debt-Climate Nexus Must Be Center Stage<br>The old promises of $100 billion per year in climate finance\u2014a target still not fully met\u2014are now<br>grossly inadequate. At COP30, the Global South must unite around a clear and non-negotiable<br>demand: integrate debt relief with climate action.<br>We propose a concrete, four-pronged approach for the COP30 agenda:<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A substantial portion of the external debt of the most vulnerable countries must be cancelled<br>outright. This would instantly free up fiscal space for national adaptation plans, renewable energy<br>projects, and loss and damage funds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Debt-for-clature swaps, where a portion of a nation&#8217;s debt is forgiven in exchange for verified<br>investments in climate mitigation and adaptation, must be moved from pilot projects to a standard,<br>large-scale instrument.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The solution to a debt crisis cannot be more debt. The primary vehicle for new climate finance,<br>particularly for adaptation, must be grants. We demand a new, fit-for-purpose financial architecture<br>that does not perpetuate the cycle of indebtedness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We call upon the leaders of the Global South countries at the COP30 Summit to issue a decisive<br>and clear declaration to halt the export of all primary raw materials from our countries, except at<br>manufacturing ratios that achieve technological balance for our peoples with the countries of the<br>North. This action would limit the trade of fossil fuels as a false source of income for our countries in<br>the South, which is used to pay for even harsher and less beneficial<br>Our Message to the Polluters of the Global North<br>Your inaction has financed this crisis. Your emissions are the collateral against which we have<br>unwittingly taken out a loan of survival. It is time to settle this ecological debt.<br>The forests of the Amazon, the Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia\u2014the lungs of our planet\u2014are<br>largely in our care. The biodiversity that sustains all life is preserved within our borders. But this<br>stewardship comes at a cost to our own development. We cannot be expected to be the guardians<br>of the global commons while being financially strangled.<br>COP30 in the Global South is more than a conference; it is a reckoning. We are not coming to Bel\u00e9m<br>to beg. We are asserting that climate justice is economic justice. The sword of Damocles hanging<br>over our heads, forged in the factories and fueled by the lifestyles of the North, must be removed.<br>Our collective future depends on it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>**###<br>The AA+ Green Forum (Voices from the South) is a non-governmental organization (under<br>establishment) dedicated to amplifying green perspectives from the Global South.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the world sets its sights on Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, for COP30, the Afro-Asian Green Forum (AA+ GF) sees afamiliar script&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2864,"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions\/2864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-kurd.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}