Climate Debt Risk Index 2024
The Climate Debt Risk Index (CDRI) 2024 presents a stark indictment of the deepening financial precarity faced by Least Developed Countries (LDCs), driven by a disproportionate reliance on debt-based climate finance. Despite contributing a mere 3.3% to global carbon emissions, LDCs struggle with mounting climate debt, with their debt service tripling between 2011 and 2019. Post-pandemic projections indicate an unsustainable annual burden exceeding $50 billion, exacerbating economic vulnerability in climate-affected nations.
Meanwhile, industrialized nations secured $1.27 trillion in climate finance (2021–22), yet allocated a meager 5% as climate adaptation grants, perpetuating climate injustice and deepening the climate debt trap. The CDRI 2024 report highlights a worsening crisis by 2030, with Mozambique, Madagascar, and Bangladesh among the most climate-vulnerable economies.
The report issues an urgent call for grant-based climate finance and comprehensive debt relief, warning that without these reforms, LDCs will face irreversible economic instability. To address this growing crisis, climate finance reform, debt restructuring, and fair climate policies must take center stage in global climate negotiations.
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