Publication & Media

The paper proceeds by setting out pertinent aspects of the South African context and the

key role of its electricity sector in contributing to the country’s worsening debt profile.

Fossil fuel development, in particular oil and gas, promised vast riches in the past. Today it is exposing fossil fuel producers and their creditors to a massive stranded asset risk. Technological disruption with the rapid cost-reduction of renewable energy and storage technologies, in conjunction with the inevitability of increased climate action, are at the root of unprecedented uncertainties over the future of the sector. 

South Africa’s economy, which was already in a precarious state before Covid-2019, has been tipped into full blown crisis by the pandemic. Gross national government debt  is expected to be upwards of 86% within two years. Eskom, which is the country’s state-owned monopolistic and vertically integrated electricity utility, is a key driver of this escalating debt profile and lies at the heart of the economy’s structural challenges. 

Low-income countries (LICs) are suffering from triple distresses: the mortal impact of Covid-19, increasing debt burdens, and climate change impacts. This paper brings the debt-for-adaptation swap into play as an alternative source to restore countries' ability to act and be resilient to climate change.

This paper outlines some viable options for creating an architecture for a Debt-for-Climate Initiative (DCI). This is intended to enable countries to recover from the pandemic.

This paper discusses how debt-for-climate swaps can be useful “triple-win” instruments to address the climate crisis by ensuring the protection of valuable terrestrial and marine ecosystems, while also contributing to debt sustainability.

This paper examines the experience with debt-for-development swaps and major debt relief processes in order to draw some lessons that could help shape a debt-for-climate initiative (DCI).

This report proposes a Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery Initiative as an ambitious, concerted, and comprehensive debt relief initiative that frees up resources to support recoveries in a sustainable way, boosts economies’ resilience, and fosters a just transition to a low-carbon economy.

This policy brief details the challenging debt dynamics facing African nations and outlines several solutions that would improve their fiscal capacity to address the climate emergency and embark on a sustainable growth pathway.

Climate-related shocks are becoming more frequent and severe. More than ever, countries must invest in climate resilience and just transitions, but for many emerging market and developing economies, high debt burdens put achieving climate and development goals out of reach. A new policy brief explains the proposal advanced by the Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery (DRGR) Project.