G20 countries flayed for creating debt traps for poor nations

LAHORE:Ahead of G20 Summit in India, climate activists and campaigners from Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, Labour Education Foundation and Tameer e Nau Women Workers Organisation staged a protest outside Lahore Press Club on Friday.

The protesters were holding placards and banners slamming G20 countries for creating debt traps for global south. The protesters called for urgent climate action from bigger economies demanding rechanneling of public funds away from fossil fuels. The protesters demanded rapid, just and equitable transition to 100% renewable energy in Pakistan.

Protest actions were also held in key cities in six Asian countries on Friday ahead of the 2023 summit of leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) major economies. Rallies were held in Makati, Jakarta, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Karachi, Lahore and Colombo.

Meanwhile, Indian groups are set to hold protest rallies in several cities and states on September 9 (today) in time for the opening of the summit. Addressing the protest, General Secretary Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee Farooq Tariq reiterated that G20’s framework continues to create conditions that promote debt within countries like Pakistan and India. He said G20’s common framework spotlights their inability and unwillingness to address the systemic crisis of debt with long-term, durable, and transformative solutions. Countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other gravely debt-burdened global south countries starkly foreground the G20’s flawed and futile debt relief mechanisms.

Country programme head of Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development Zaighum Abbas said that G20 economies have the obligation to pay for climate finance because their policies have led to destruction of climate and ecology within the global south. He said based on historical emissions, equity and fair shares the global south needs immediate climate finance so that countries can pay for adaptation, loss and damage caused by climate crisis.