PREVIEW
A group of countries is working on a joint conservation plan to raise $2 billion to protect coral reefs, mangroves and fish stocks in the Indian Ocean
A group of African nations is working on what could become the world’s first joint ‘debt-for-nature’ swap and the latest innovative solution on debt reduction and climate financing. The countries supporting the ‘Great Blue Wall’ conservation plan to protect coral reefs on the Indian Ocean include Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania and the Comoros, though only a handful are understood to be involved in the debt swap proposal.
The project is working to raise over US$2 billion to protect a coral-rich region of the Indian Ocean, according to Thomas Sberna of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Backed by the United States and British governments, it aims to protect and restore two million hectares of ocean ecosystems by 2030, replenishing coral reefs, mangroves and fish stocks.
Sberna has mooted a fund composed of $500m of concessional funding and $1.5bn of bond swap money.
The idea of offering debt alleviation in exchange for environmental protection and conservation has emerged at successive COP climate summits and has the support of many western governments and the likes of Pascal Lamy, the former Director-General of the World Trade Organization, who says that ‘nature’s contribution to decarbonisation can be priced’.
Barbados and the Galápagos Islands have already struck agreements offering debt alleviation in exchange for protecting coral reefs.
Debt-for-nature swaps and the Global Green Bond Initiative are among the latest attempts by leaders to link climate finance and debt alleviation for the countries most vulnerable to climate change.
They are more likely to find favour among civil society groups and economists than carbon credit markets, such as the African Carbon Markets Initiative which was launched at Egypt’s COP27 summit in November 2022 and has been pushed by some African leaders as a way to offset emissions through activities such as planting trees or investing in renewable energy projects.
Many view such offset schemes as a distraction with dubious environmental credentials (AC Vol 64 No 18, Nairobi vies for green capital status).
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