Climate Change, Debt and COVID-19
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102 STUDY Analysis Climate change, Debt and COVID-19 Analysing the Triple Crisis with a New Climate Disaster and Debt Risk Indicator and Building Forward for a Resilient Recovery, Based on Climate Justice Imprint Publisher Brot für die Welt Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e. V. Caroline-Michaelis-Straße 1 10115 Berlin Phone: +49 30 65211 0 [email protected] www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de Lead Author Thomas Hirsch (Climate and Development Advice) With contributions from Eva Hanfstängl and Sabine Minninger (Bread for the World); Jürgen Kaiser (erlassjahr.de); Vera Hampel and Miklós Veszprémi (Climate and Development Advice); Kerstin Pfliegner, Joanna Smith and Helena Sims (The Nature Conservancy); Sara Jane Ahmed (Finance Advisor at the Global Centre on Adaptation); Vera Künzel and Laura Schäfer (Germanwatch); Elena Cedillo and Sophie Gebreyes (Lutheran World Federation); Marivone Vorachak (Cooperation Committee with Laos); Maina Talia (Climate justice consultant, Tuvalu) Editor Sven Recker This publication contains guest articles that are in the sole responsibility of the guest authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bread for the World and erlassjahr.de Responsible according to German Press Law Klaus Seitz Photos Jens Grossmann (title: Debris in front of the Bethany Hospital in the City of Tacloban City in Leyte/Philippines due to the devastating damages Typhoon Hayian caused in 2013./p. 42), Christof Krackhardt (p. 23), Karin Schermbrucker (p. 16), SIGA (p. 9), Sara Jane Ahmed (p. 32), Sophie Gebreyes (p. 51), Manivone Vorachak (p. 63), Maina Talia (p. 69), Elena Cedillo (p. 76) Layout Katja Tränkner (Write Now) Art. No. 129503190 Donations Brot für die Welt Bank für Kirche und Diakonie IBAN: DE10 1006 1006 0500 5005 00 BIC: GENODED1KDB March 2021 STUDY Climate change, Debt and COVID-19 Analysing the Triple Crisis with a New Climate Disaster and Debt Risk Indicator and Building Forward for a Resilient Recovery, Based on Climate Justice Table of Contents List of Figures . 1 Abbreviations . 2 Glossary . 3 Foreword . 4 Executive Summary . 5. Introduction . 6. PART I: Addressing Multiple Climate, Pandemic and Debt Risks . 8. Overview of topics . 8 On the way to a new sovereign debt crisis . 8 Effects of the COVID-19 crisis ..................................................10 The climate crisis ‒ expensive losses and the threat of losing control .................. 11 Interactions between debt, climate and pandemic crises . 13. How climate and other disaster risks increase debt . .14 When debt grows, resilience decreases . 17 SIDS are on the frontline of the climate, COVID-19 and debt crises ..................17 Beyond SIDS: The risk of over-indebtedness caused by climate-induced damages ...... 19 The COVID-19 pandemic: Crisis-catalyser or momentum for a turnaround? ........... 19 Interim conclusion: The climate change and sovereign debt impact chain . 22 Applying the Climate Disaster and Debt Risk Index to five sample countries . 22 Solution approaches . 25 Equity, responsibility, legitimacy ‒ addressing the crisis with justice for the poor ......25 Debt moratorium and state insolvency proceedings, when debt-carrying capacity is exceeded ..........................................................26 Debt conversion in support of investment into climate adaptation ...................28 Equalisation fund to cover vulnerable countries’ climate-induced extra credit risk .....30 Setting up a Global Resilience Investment Facility .................................. 31 Climate change and debt management: Supporting the V20’s climate prosperity ........32 Making polluters pay ............................................................35 The Warsaw International Mechanism’s possible role in the debt and climate crisis ....36 Conclusions and recommendations . 38 PART II: Countries Caught Between Debt, COVID-19 and Climate Change . 41. Measuring the combined climate, pandemic, disaster and debt risk . .41 Ethiopia ....................................................................46 Sri Lanka ...................................................................53 Lao People’s Democratic Republic ..............................................58 Papua New Guinea . 64 El Salvador ..................................................................71 Bibliography . 78 List of Figures Figure 1 Number of developing countries breaching at least one critical debt risk indicator Figure 2 The climate change and sovereign debt impact chain Figure 3 The multi-dimensional Climate Disaster and Debt Risk Index of five sample countries Figure 4 Susceptibility to climate change of Moody’s rated sovereigns Figure 5 Public debt to GDP ratio in Grenada Figure 6 Debt sustainability analyses Figure 7 Classification of disaster risk Figure 8 Classification of average annual climate-induced losses Figure 9 Classification of climate-induced loss trend Figure 10 Classification of multi-hazard relative average annual loss Figure 11 Classification of losses as a percentage of social expenditure Figure 12 Classification of size of the financing gap in case of a 100-year extreme event Figure 13 Classification of financing gap return period Figure 14 Classification of loss and damage risk Figure 15 Debt risk scoring Figure 16 Classification of debt risk Figure 17 Classification of multi-dimensional risk Figure 18 Map of Ethiopia Figure 19 Climate-induced losses in Ethiopia (2010‒2017) Figure 20 Map of Sri Lanka Figure 21 Climate-induced losses in Sri Lanka (2010‒2017) Figure 22 Map of Lao PDR Figure 23 Climate-induced losses in Lao PDR (2010‒2017) Figure 24 Map of Papua New Guinea Figure 25 Climate-induced losses in PNG (2010‒2017) Figure 26 Map of El Salvador Figure 27 Climate-induced losses in El Salvador (2010‒2017) 1 Abbreviations AOSIS Association of Small Island States BftW Bread for the World/Brot für die Welt CAN Climate Action Network CCDSF Climate Change and Disaster Survival Fund (of Tuvalu) CCRT Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (of the IMF) CRI Climate Risk Index (Germanwatch) CVF/V20 Climate Vulnerable Forum/Vulnerable 20 DRMKC Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (European Commission) DRR Disaster Risk Reduction DSSI Debt Service Suspension Initiative (of the G20) ExCom Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism G7 Group of Seven G20 Group of Twenty GAR Global Assessment Report (on Disasters, published by UNDRR) GCF Green Climate Fund GDP Gross Domestic Product GNI Gross National Income HDI Human Development Index HIPC Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative IFIs International Financial Institutions IMF International Monetary Fund Lao PDR Lao People’s Democratic Republic LDCs Least Developed Countries MDRI Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative MIC Middle Income Country NDC Nationally Determined Contributions ODA Official Development Assistance OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development PA Paris Agreement PNG Papua New Guinea PPP Purchasing Power Parity SDG Sustainable Development Goals SIDS Small Island Developing States TFCA Tropical Forest Conservation Act TNC The Nature Conservancy UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNDP United Nations Development Program UNDRR United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change WIM Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (under UNFCCC) 2 Glossary A Global Debt Register has been proposed by erlassjahr.de Debt Conversion Facility (Schuldenumwandlungs- to create transparency across all states’ public debt oblig- fazilität) is a German stimulus program created in 1992 ations. to cancel outstanding development aid credits under the condition that the respective states, mostly in the Global The London Club is an informal ad-hoc group of creditor South, commit to invest equivalent sums with or without banks, which convenes in order to renegotiate claims discount, in their national currencies, in environmental of individual debtor countries. The first meeting in the protection and development projects. London Club format took place in 1976. EM DAT is a database on disaster related economic and The Paris Club is a cartel of creditor governments, humanitarian losses, based in Belgium. founded in 1956, in order to coordinate their negotiations with debtor countries. It has 22 members, most of them A fair, independent and transparent sovereign debt OECD member states. workout for states would grant over-indebted states the opportunity of fair and transparent insolvency pro- Debt Carrying Capacity is defined as the level of debt ceedings overseen by independent decision-making a debtor can service and repay in full and on time. It bodies. erlassjahr.de and the global Jubilee movement has not had a generally binding definition so far. The have been promoting them.² question of what sustainable levels of debt are has been approached variously within discussions of national debt INFORM is a multi-stakeholder forum for developing crises. Various levels have been applied in negotiations. shared, quantitative analysis relevant to humanitarian The analysis of historical debt carrying capacities crises and disasters led by the Joint Research Centre of studies past situations in which debt payments became the European Commission and managed by the Inter- unsustainable. It allows the deduction of levels of debt Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Risk, that were, as a matter of historical fact, not sustainable. Early Warning and Preparedness in collaboration