Africa shows why debt relief should be on the table at COP29  – POLITICO

Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, we’re set to establish a new climate finance goal — an upgrade to the $100 billion that developed nations had promised developing countries to help respond to climate change. Yet, without debt relief, injecting this capital will be like pedaling harder on a bicycle as its tires go flat.

Africa is caught in a web of climate vulnerability and unsustainable debt. Of the 20 nations most threatened by the climate crisis, 17 of them are in Africa, and almost half of the continent’s countries are either in debt distress or are teetering on the brink of it.