ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has called for the cancellation of Nigeria’s foreign debt as well as that of other African countries to appease for the damage done by global emission.
The Country Director of AAN, Mr Andrew Mamedu made the call at the weekend in Abuja, while noting that in reality African countries as well as other developing countries across the globe are not owing any debt but rather they are owed by developed countries and the Global North.
Mamedu, while calling for conversation around compensation for global emission, expressed concern about the disparity in the interest rate charges on loans between the low income earners and developed countries.
He said the amount agreed to be paid by developed countries for global emission should be redistributed to disadvantaged countries.
He stressed that the Global North is indebted to the developing countries and should be made to pay.
Mamedu argued that climate change is real and we should be pushing for climate justice, which means that the countries responsible for depletion of the ozone layer and subsequent climate change should be made to pay for their damage.
He said: “So with the global emission conversation, there’s an agreement that for global emission, there’s a specific amount that each country should pay, and this amount that is being paid should be redistributed to countries that are disadvantaged. “And surprise you to note that the Global North contributes over 97% of global emission. So with that calculation, with what, for instance, I’ll pick a country like the United States.
“What the United States is currently doing in terms of global emission, the United States has up to 80 trillion dollars that it owes for global emission. But if you project it between now and 2050, so between 1960 to 2050, the United States alone has about 80 trillion dollars. And with that projection, countries like Nigeria, if Nigeria is projected to what Nigeria would get, Nigeria would get 9.9 trillion dollars as payback.
“So look at the calculation, Nigeria is owing about 50 billion dollars, right? But for our climate emission, Nigeria is supposed to then get paid 9.9 trillion dollars between 1960 and now. So the question is, who is owing who? I think we need to sit down on the roundtable and renegotiate this.
“It is unacceptable that, particularly the Global North, the high-income countries, they also are indebted because of the level of risk.”
On the disparity issue of interest rate charged between the developed and developing countries, Mamedu said: “So a country like Germany pays an interest rate of 0.8 percent. Why is a country like Nigeria charged 2 to 3 percent? “You see the difference for their own same loan that we have taken. And what that means is, it is affecting the money’s amount available for our social sector, from education to health, to water, and housing.
“So the social sector is affected. Women, agriculture, young persons are affected. We are not able to have adequate resources to run this.
“So we need to come back to the negotiation table and look at these loans that Nigeria and African countries, not just Nigeria, particularly African countries, how do we come to a point where those loans are cancelled? Or secondly, the issue of the rates that are paid in servicing those loans. Are they fair to the countries? And thirdly, the issue of global emission, the amount that is owed by these countries, the developed countries, the countries that are emitting more, like the United States is top on that list.”
He said that: “By the time you see the full reports, there’s a whole report, huge analysis around this, that shows that we are not the ones in debt. Actually, it’s those countries that are indebted to us and we are happy to sit on the table to start discussing this. Enough of this whole neocolonialism mentality, enough of this new agenda.
“So climate change is real. Climate justice for us is what we are pushing for. And part of climate justice is that the global emission that people are responsible for should be paid for.
“And if they are being paid for, those countries that are suffering from it, which are those in the global South, like us, we should be benefiting. And we can then categorically say that they owe us, 9.9 trillion dollars. And we should start thinking of how they will pay that amount between now and 2050.”
