Debt Distress and Environmental Degradation in River Basin Countries

How does rising external debt in low-income countries affect the natural capital that
sustains our livelihoods? A new paper focuses on three river basins that are vital to the
livelihoods and biodiversity of the countries that surround them, suggesting ways that
we can both measure and conserve that natural capital in the face of the economic
forces that threaten it. Pushpam Kumar of UN Environment Programme talks to Tim
Phillips about the alarming rise in the ratio of debt to natural capital for the 21 countries whose wealth relies on the river basins that they border, and how debt-for-nature swaps may be our best hope of avoiding both an economic and ecological disaster.

Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/debt-leading-unsustainable-exploitation-natural-resources