People on twitter are saying glasses aren’t a disability aid, and like… I get glasses have been pretty normalized, but I’m poor and need my glasses to drive/see in general/stop myself from getting migraines so… if my glasses break, I’m pretty fucked. Not being able to see is a disability for many, actually.
Yes! This sort of creative, against-the-grain thinking is needed to change the current deforestation efforts in the Amazon and African rainforests.
Excerpt from this story from Climate Change News:
Colombia’s recently elected president, Gustavo Petro, is proposing a debt for nature swap to protect the Amazon rainforest, which is nearing a tipping point after decades of deforestation.
Petro, a former rebel and the country’s first left wing president, was sworn into office on Sunday 7 August in a historic shift for the South American country.
In his first speech as president, he addressed the need to mobilize resources to protect Colombia’s rainforests. In 2022, the country experienced the highest fiscal deficit in recent years and its external debt accounted for half of the country’s GDP.
“I propose to humanity to exchange external debt for internal expenses to save and recover our jungles, forests and wetlands,” said Petro during his inauguration speech.
As the Covid-19 pandemic led to an increase in debt in Latin America, several nations turned to debt swaps to meet their climate goals.
Under this scheme, developing countries get their debts cancelled or reduced in exchange for commitments to finance green projects.
Ecuador, for example, significantly expanded the Galápagos marine reserve and financed it through this mechanism. Colombia’s previous government called for a similar measure in 2021, but didn’t announce new agreements.
After the pandemic and the war in Ukraine exacerbated debt in developing countries, debt for nature swaps —if done appropriately— can become a realistic opportunity to get relief, said Sejal Patel, environmental economist at the International Institute for Environment and Development.
“If they’re structured well, then debt swaps can be a way to redirect payments to the national climate and nature objectives,” said Patel.
At the same time, climate funds have not flowed as needed. Analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed developed countries fell $17 billion short of a target to mobilise $100 billion in climate finance annually by 2020.
