Climate-vulnerable countries spend nearly 25 times more on debt than climate action – ActionAid report
Climate-vulnerable countries are being forced to spend nearly 25 times more on debt repayments than on climate action, according to a new report by ActionAid and Development Finance International (DFI). The report, Debt Fuels the Climate Crisis: How the Finance Flows, analysed data on domestic revenues, sovereign debt, national budgets and climate plans in 65 countries considered highly vulnerable to climate change. It found that in 2026, total debt servicing on external and domestic debt in these countries will be nearly four times their spending on education, almost seven times their health expenditure and nearly six times their spending on social protection.