An AFP report by Delphine Touitou today reports that the idea of forgiving debt held by poor countries in exchange for “green” investments” gained ground this week during the annual spring meeting of the IMF/World Bank, and that concrete proposals are expected in time for COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in November. It means that low-income countries will face a double pressure: To pay down their debt, and to take action to solve what their lenders that support deindustrialization in the name of saving the environment define as environmental problems.
These two circumstances make the debtor countries “highly, highly vulnerable,” Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said this week, according to AFP. Therefore, Georgieva said, it’s time for “green debt swaps.” Since these “climate actions” in most developing nations will mean turning off the electric power much of the time, burning wood for heat, swearing off fertilizer for farms, etc., IMF/World Bank essentially wants to cut debt in exchange for these nations cutting their populations.
