The climate emergency is fueling the accumulation of debt in countries in the Global South. Countries suffering from the impacts of climate change, while having contributed very little to it, are facing more expensive borrowing costs because of their climate vulnerabilities, and are also left with almost no option but to borrow to finance climate mitigation and adaptation, and to fund reconstruction and recovery after a climate extreme event.

Furthermore, climate finance, that should respond to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, is being delivered mainly through loans and debt creating modalities, putting the financial burden on the shoulders of the global south. On the other hand, countries having accumulated unsustainable debt levels have reduced fiscal space and opportunities to invest in adaptation and mitigation, as well as to recover from loss and damage after a climate disaster.

In this context, the need to transition globally towards a more sustainable and equitable economy will not be possible without sustainable, responsible, fair and non-debt creating climate finance, as well as finance for transition that does not exacerbate debt vulnerabilities in the global south. Furthermore, debt cancellation and a fair debt resolution framework is needed for countries to be able to face the challenges of climate change and pursue a green and inclusive recovery.

In a nutshell, climate justice will not be possible without economic and debt justice. And debt justice won’t be possible without climate justice.

This means, recognizing the climate debt that the north owes to the global south, and providing sufficient and quality climate finance and debt cancellation. But reparations for climate debt are also about ecological restoration, ending extractivism, and shifting to new modes of production, distribution and consumption. It is about systems change.

How you can join

Sign the statement, if you are an organisation. The statement is available in English, Español, Français, Português and Nederlands. Interested in finding out who else signed it? Click here for a full list of signatories.

For further information:

Global action for debt cancellation «There is no climate justice without debt justice»
Briefing EURODAD «The Climate Emergency: What’s debt got to do with it?«
Briefing «Debt and the climate crisis: a perfect storm»
EURODAD repor «A tale of two emergencies» |  Webinar
Climate Finance Shadow Report 2020

The post There is no climate justice without debt justice appeared first on ODG.

Beach and mountain, art and entertainment, luxury and simplicity, history and innovation… Everything you can dream, you will find in Barcelona. Discover the neighborhoods of Barcelona as if they were your own and be amazed at every step gazing at how history and modernity coexist in perfect harmony.

Living-In Bcn · @LivingInBcn · FB LivingInBcn

A campaign of the Debt Observatory in Globalisation (ODG) and the DESC Observatory, with the collaboration of Atajo and Fotomovimiento.

Do you imagine living in Barcelona?

1) The Tourism Model in Barcelona
Tourism is saturating life in our cities. How did we get here?

In each crisis there has been a process of tourist intensification and now practically everything is touristic, it is a penetration from top to bottom in all areas of our life. A great quantity of public funds are used to promote the Barcelona tourism ‘model’ and it is exported around the world as if it were a model of success. But the key question to ask is: who is the ultimate beneficiary of these investments? We are facing a tourism model and strategy of financial and real estate capital, which find in this industry the perfect mechanisms to extract profitability from our cities, from our living spaces.

2) The B Face of tourism
Tourism impacts our lives, our work, housing, our rights to public space… our health.

The 2008 crisis blows up the idea that tourism is untouchable, that ‘we all live from it’. Labour precarisation, problems of access to housing, deterioration of community relations, serious impacts on health; with increased pollution, sleeping problems, stress…
In the very touristy areas, living spaces are massified, displacing the local population who struggle to do shopping, go to school, make a neighborhood life.
These impacts require a global reading to revert them, rethinking this model that prevents life in our neighbourhoods.

3) Those responsible for the tourism model in Barcelona
Barcelona brand is in private hands.

‘Barcelona Turisme’ is a consortium with a public-private model:
Barcelona City Council: 45%,
Barcelona Chamber of Commerce: 45%
Barcelona Promotion Foundation: 10%.
Where is the public-community representation? Who made the decision to give more weight to the private sector?

Big tourist companies have the capacity to put pressure on the governments and obtain ‘conditions of favour’. This has consequences such as the reduction of social income and the regression of social policies. Laws, infrastructure and international investments have pushed the expansion of tourism. European, state and regional governments have passed laws that have opened the city doors of to international investment. New multinational intermediaries, such as Airbnb or other platforms, have a great capacity to influence the tourism model. They often have their headquarters abroad, what makes it difficult to act against them from the local level.

With the support of:

The post Living In Barcelona appeared first on ODG.

• El ex Ministro de Industria, Comercio y Turismo JOAN CLOS MATHEU – PSOE (8 de septiembre 2006 – 13 de abril 2008)
• El ex Ministro de Industria, Comercio y Turismo MIGUEL SEBASTIÁN GASCÓN – PSOE  (14 de abril 2008 – 22 de diciembre 2011)
• El ex Ministro de Industria, Energía y Turismo JOSÉ MANUEL SORIA LÓPEZ – PP (22 de diciembre 2011 – 15 de abril 2016)
• El presidente de la constructora ACS y accionista mayoritaria de la mercantil ESCAL UGS SL, FLORENTINO PÉREZ RODRÍGUEZ 
• La ex Ministra de Fomento MAGDALENA ÁLVAREZ ARZA – PSOE (18 de abril 2004 – 7 de abril 2009) y ex Vicepresidenta del banco Europeo de Inversiones
• La ex Ministra de Medio Ambiente y Agricultura ELENA ESPINOSA MANGAN – PSOE  (14 de abril 2008 – 20 de octubre 2010)
• El presidente de la mercantil ESCAL UGS SL RECAREDO DEL POTRO GÓMEZ
• El ex Secretario General de Energía del Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo IGNASI NIETO MAGALDI (15 de septiembre 2006 – 17 de abril 2008)
• El ex Consejero de Medio Ambiente, Agua, Urbanismo y Vivienda de la Generalitat de Valenciana JUAN GABRIEL COTINO FERRER (31 de agosto 2009 – 22 de junio 2011)

The post Caso Castor appeared first on ODG.

The earthquakes caused by the construction of the Castor project are just the tip of the iceberg: more than 1,000 earthquakes in the area between Benicarló, Vinaròs and Alcanar. A disaster project, with an initial budget of 0.5 billion euros, which ended up having a cost of 1.7 billion euros. Although it hasn’t been operative for even a day, the annual maintenance of this infrastructure entails an annual cost of 0.016 billion euros.

It leaves us 20 people investigated for environmental prevarication and a compensation for the construction company ESCAL UGS/ACS of 1.351 billion € (following its renunciation from the concession), as a “recognition of a compensation for the investments made”. Once adding interests, we are left with 2.42 billion € to be paid by the citizens in 30 years. A very profitable business for the company, and for the banking sector: 1.350 billion € have already been advanced by banks like Santander, Bankia and Caixabank, following the Government’s orders and before exhausting the 30 day deadline – despite having a sentence of Supreme Court that allowed not to have to do pay it – while other transfers to public services in Spain are delayed months or even never arrive.

The Castor project has been executed by a conglomerate of companies led by Florentino Pérez’s multinational building corporation ESCAL UGS/ACS, by successive governments -both the PP and the PSOE– and their Ministers of Industry, Energy and Tourism, with the financial support of the European Investment Bank (EIB). A project led by this triumvirate which has today an approximate cost of about 3.42 billion €, adding maintenance, the cost of its future possible dismantling, and other several expenses.

This amount is being paid by the citizens through our gas bill, while our population suffers 17% energy poverty. In a context of crisis and social disinvestment, what has been spent on the Castor disaster exceeds the amount of health cuts suffered in the country after de 2008 crisis.

The Castor project has generated an illegitimate debt they want us to pay from our pockets. A private debt where all costs and risks have been socialised, with facilities that are not dismantled, and a debt that continues to grow.

But we are not going to allow it… we are organising to reverse this scam.

Peoples’ Tribunal on the Castor project – June 17th, Barcelona

Please join the “Castor People’s Tribunal Accusation Manifest” as an organisation or an individual person through this form.

Press contact: premsa[a]odg.cat / +34 640 745 025 / Campaign on Twitter and Facebook

[Video with English subtitles]

The post Peoples’ Tribunal on the Castor Project appeared first on ODG.

Trailer AT THE SYRIAN BORDER – English by Transforma Films.

Synopsis:
David has a transportation-based business.
Ahmed has arrived in Barcelona fleeing the Syrian war.
Ahmed will soon need to take action to rebuild his life in Europe.
Their paths will somehow cross over with an unexpected outcome.

Organised by: Transforma Films – Centre Delàs – ODG

With the support of: Ajuntament de SCV – Ajuntament de Barcelona

The post At the Syrian border appeared first on ODG.

#Somnambulism shows us how debt is devouring our societies, affecting our physical and psychological conditions and breaking our communty by imposing an illegitimate and unsustainble burden. From low income countries indebted with rich countries, to families or students not able to pay their loans, debt is a problem that affects us all across the board. Join us in our struggle against Debt.

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