How Developing Nations Battered by Climate Change Are Crushed by Debt From International Lenders

By Katie Surma
March 6, 2024

A new U.N. report sheds light on how climate change is driving some climate-vulnerable nations deeper into debt, locking them into unsustainable cycles of economic crisis and hampering their governments’ ability to provide basic services to citizens.

Attiya Waris, the report’s author and U.N. independent expert on foreign debt, found that the effect of five major hurricanes since 2012 has forced the country of about 400,000 people to take on billions of dollars in debt for reconstruction while imperiling its tourism-dependent economy. As a result, the Bahamian government has been less able to spend on programs like food assistance, business loans and unemployment benefits—the need for which increases after climate-induced natural disasters.

In 2019, Hurricane Dorian, the most recent major hurricane to hit the Carribean nation of about 700 islands, caused a staggering $3.4 billion in damage, equal to roughly one-fourth of the country’s GDP. The category five storm killed upwards of 70 people and ripped apart homes and businesses, affecting an additional 30,000 people.

In turn, that damage to nature has, and will continue to, directly affect the natural-resource dependent Bahamian tourism industry, which accounts for over 50 percent of the country’s GDP and employs over half of its workforce.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06032024/developing-nations-battered-by-climate-change-crushed-by-debt/