Activists took part in numerous climate actions around the world on Friday, September 20, 2024, to call on the governments in the Global North to pay up $5 trillion annually as a down payment towards their climate debt to the countries, people and communities of the Global South who are the least responsible for climate disaster but are the most affected.

Climate activists say wealthy countries, responsible for over 75% of global accumulated emissions since the start of industrialisation, have an obligation to support developing country climate action and pay for climate adaptation, the loss and damage caused by the impacts of climate disaster, and for a just transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy and climate-resilient societies.

A 2023 study shows that, by 2050, the Global North will owe $192 trillion in fair reparations to the Global South – even if we can limit warming to an average 1.5°C. That breaks down to an annual climate debt of $5 trillion owed by wealthy countries to poorer ones.

The protest actions represent the climax of a global week of action ahead of Climate Week NYC, with civil society groups calling on rich countries to pay compensation for their decades of reckless fossil fuel consumption that is causing rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and widespread destruction that disproportionately impacts the Global South. Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Pacific Islands & the Caribbean pay the price with lost lives, destroyed infrastructure, crop failure, landslides, and ruined livelihoods.

Lidy Nacpil, Co-ordinator of the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development and the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, said: “It is unconscionable that Global North governments have continuously rejected their responsibility to deliver adequate climate finance for the Global South. If developed nations are serious about solving the problem of climate change, as they claim to be, they should agree to a climate finance target that covers the costs of mitigation, adaptation, just transition, and loss and damage. The Global South is owed trillions–not billions.”

Norly Mercado, 350.org Asia Regional Director, said: “Hundreds of climate strikes are happening across Asia, a testament that the movement for a rapid energy revolution based on justice and equity is growing. We call on leaders in Asia to prioritise affordable and community-centred renewable energy solutions, especially for the vulnerable.

“We need leaders from rich countries to pay up and fund this energy transition by taxing billionaires and fossil fuel companies who have contributed most to the climate crisis. We will continue to show force until our governments listen to our calls for a future which is centred on the people and the planet.”

A new global goal on climate finance will be one of the key areas of negotiation at the UN COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan in November. Given this climate debt, Global North countries need to come ready to commit to trillions and not billions.

Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of Climate Action Network International, said: “While the climate crisis is a shared challenge, its impacts aren’t equally shared. The governments, elites, and corporations of the Global North owe a climate debt to the Global South for the damage caused by their disproportionately large contribution to climate change. The finance, resources and solutions exist – but current political will fails to prioritise climate action and justice. Trillions of dollars can be found for all harmful things like militarisation and fossil fuel subsidies. We can shift these funds into doing good for people and the planet while also making polluters and the wealthy pay for the harm they have caused.”

Despite countries agreeing at last year’s COP28 in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels, the Global North continues to focus on its own economic growth with new oil, gas and coal expansion instead of the necessary rapid reduction in emissions or the necessary scaled-up finance.

“This just adds to their growing climate debt. They should stop all expansion and new investment plans for fossil fuels,” added Essop.

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, WWF Global Climate and Energy Lead, former Minister of Environment for Peru, and COP20 President: “The measures needed to decarbonize every sector, conserve and restore nature, and to protect people from climate impacts, simply will not be possible without a significant and sustained uplift in finance from developed countries. If delivered on, an ambitious new finance agreement could trigger the step-change in global climate and nature action needed to avoid climate catastrophe. So, when people around the world take to the streets, they are doing so because they want to secure a safer, fairer and more prosperous future. Our leaders must heed their plea’s and ensure that COP29 delivers on the finance needed to achieve this.”

Teresa Anderson, Global lead on climate justice for ActionAid International, said: “When half of the world is already being hit hard by climate impacts, it’s absurd that more of the world’s money is still causing the climate crisis than fixing it. The world’s poorest countries are already bearing the spiralling costs of a warming planet. So far, they have only received begrudging, tokenistic pennies in climate finance from the rich polluting countries.

“This year’s COP29 climate talks will be a critical test of rich countries’ commitment to securing a liveable planet. We all need them to agree to pay the trillions that keeping us safe will cost, and to provide grant-based finance rather than loans that push climate-vulnerable countries deeper into debt.”

Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), said: ‘’Ideally, payment for historical liabilities should be without debate. On the principles of fairness, equity and collective consideration, countries whose development was on the wings of carbon and at the expense of vulnerable countries in the Global South should need no force to make and increase commitment to climate finance. Since their moods are reflective of deliberate avoidance, we are committed to forcing dialogue on them.”

Gina Cortés Valderrama, Co-Facilitator UNFCCC Women and Gender Constituency, said: “For too long, climate finance has been framed as an act of benevolence from the rich to the poor. But what we truly face is an ecological crisis fuelled by imperialism and militarism, underpinned by centuries of continued colonial exploitation. At COP29 it’s time to reframe climate finance as a matter of justice, not charity. The Global North owes an ecological debt, and their financial obligation must be paid up by providing grant support – not more loans that trap the majority of the world in unsustainable debt that undermines human rights and force austerity measures that reduce social protections, pushing women and LGBTQIAGnC persons deeper into inequality and capitalist exploitation. Climate finance cannot continue to be a tool for control – it must be an instrument of reparative justice!”

Leena Joshi, the founder and Executive Director of the youth-led nonprofit Climate Conservancy, said: “Climate justice demands accountability. The Global North has built its prosperity on the backs of carbon emissions, and now it’s time to pay back the debt owed to the Global South, where communities are bearing the brunt of climate devastation. The cost of inaction is being paid in lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems. As we move towards COP29, this is a pivotal moment to ensure that the trillions promised in climate finance are delivered as grants, not loans, empowering the Global South to lead in mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable transformation. The time for empty promises is over; real action means empowering vulnerable countries to secure a sustainable future for all.”

Jeremy Anderson, Director of Just Transition at the International Transport Workers’ Federation and representing TUNGO, said: “It’s time for the Global North to get real and pay up. The climate debt owed to the Global South is incontrovertible. Now is the time for action. Global North countries must arrive in Baku with a genuine commitment to provide the core public finance that Global South countries require. All the talk of mobilising private finance is a distraction, with no evidence that it will ever arrive or deliver.

“We need a global green industrial policy with massive public investment, including in workforce development, redeployment, and social protection. And it’s a minimum requirement that all governments commit to a just transition that is worker-led and responsive to all of civil society by making human rights – including workers’ rights, and rights for women, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and all affected groups – a core element of the NCQG.”