A brewing sovereign debt crisis threatens to engulf as many as sixty-one countries in debt distress over the coming year. Aid flowing from the global North—which carries the most responsibility for the atmospheric carbon stock—to the global South—which bears the brunt of its impacts—must be dramatically scaled up. Despite professing the need for global climate solutions, governments in the more prosperous countries have responded to this threat with lassitude and indifference, as evidenced by the slate of unambitious, unserious, and demonstrably ineffective responses issued from their recent summits. Meanwhile, democratic deficits within the institutions of multilateral governance show the difficulty of grappling with the pronounced asymmetries in our international financial architecture. Even the most ambitious reforms slated for discussion at week’s Summit on a New Global Financing Pact in Paris fail to confront the fundamental role of debt in that asymmetrical architecture.
Climate Crisis
Reuters: Federal judge throws out U.S. approval of ConocoPhillips Alaska oil project
While governments lie and cheat in their inexorable destruction of our planet, courts seem to be getting in their way. This cannot go on for long. Capitalism cannot afford democracy and justice. Read here
EU politics
ekathimerini.com: Austerity violated Greeks’ right to food, new report concludes
Austerity violated Greeks’ right to food, new report concludes: “structural reforms that “significantly tipped the balance in favor of larger food retailers and private traders to the detriment of small-scale producers.”” Read here
Climate Crisis
EURACTIV: Austria vetoes Mercosur deal saying it goes against EU Green Deal
Austria’s coalition government has confirmed it will block the landmark EU-Mercosur trade agreement – which should create the biggest free-trade area in the world – saying it goes against the EU’s environmental ambitions set out […]
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