Activists stage ‘chefs’ protest in Blue Zone, say debt repayments are leaving climate-vulnerable countries with fewer resources for adaptation and green energy investments.
By Bunmi Yekini
Climate activists at the COP31 climate summit on Friday called for the cancellation of unsustainable debts owed by developing countries, saying mounting repayments to creditors are undermining their ability to respond to the climate crisis.
The campaigners, dressed as chefs, staged a demonstration in the summit’s Blue Zone, using cooking imagery to draw attention to the relationship between debt and climate finance.
Carrying a banner that read “Debt cancellation is the secret ingredient for climate justice”, the activists urged world leaders to provide climate finance as grants rather than loans to prevent vulnerable countries from accumulating further debt.
ActionAid said rising debt-servicing costs were draining public resources needed to protect communities from climate-related disasters and invest in adaptation, renewable energy, agroecology and a just transition.
The demonstration was based on findings from the organisation’s 2026 flagship report, Debt Fuels the Climate Crisis: How the Finance Flows.
Teresa Anderson, ActionAid’s Global Climate Lead, said climate-vulnerable countries spent, on average, nearly 25 times more repaying lenders than on climate action.
She said the growing cost of climate-related disasters was forcing countries to borrow to recover, leaving them with fewer resources to prepare for future impacts.
“Debt cancellation could be one of the most effective and achievable climate solutions available,” Anderson said, arguing that it would allow countries to direct their resources towards their own climate priorities.
Blessings Mwansa, a youth climate activist and Programme Officer at ActionAid Zambia, said the debt crisis was limiting governments’ capacity to strengthen public services, protect communities and prepare for climate shocks.
She said countries in the Global South were paying 225 times more to wealthy banks and lenders than they received in grant-based climate finance.
Andrew Mamedu, Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, said debt servicing was absorbing almost two-thirds of public revenue in the most climate-vulnerable countries, leaving governments with less money for adaptation, food systems and green transitions.
“Climate and debt are trapped in a vicious cycle. Countries borrow to recover from disasters, then borrow again to prepare for the next one,” Mamedu said.
He urged governments to move away from climate financing arrangements that rely on loans, saying grants would enable vulnerable countries to invest in renewable energy, agroecology and other climate priorities without increasing their debt burden.
Through its #FundOurFuture campaign, ActionAid is calling for the cancellation of what it describes as unjust and unsustainable debt and for climate finance to be provided through grants rather than loans.
The organisation said freeing up national resources would enable developing countries to strengthen public services, improve climate resilience and pursue a just transition to low-carbon economies.