Back

Exploring the Role of Debt Swaps in Climate Finance

July 24, 2025
Related topics: 
Economy
Commodities & Energy
Climate change and biodiversity

This episode explores the potential of debt-for-climate swaps as a strategic tool to address climate challenges and fiscal constraints in developing countries. While implementation has often been slow and fragmented, the conversation examines practical experiences from regions like Latin America and Africa, and highlights how such mechanisms can support national development strategies when backed by credible governance, strong partnerships, and financial innovation.

Speakers
Rim Berahab
Senior Economist
Rim Berahab is Senior Economist at the Policy Center for the New South, which she joined in 2014. She is currently working on themes related to energy issues and their impacts on economic growth and long-term development. Her research areas also cover trade and regional integration challenges in Africa. Previously, she has also worked on questions related to gender inequalities in the labor market of North African countries. Rim spent three months at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in 2016, in the Commodities Unit of the Research Department. She holds a State Engineering degree from the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (INSEA). ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • A Common ESG Language to Unlock Funding for Sustainable Infrastructure Projects in Developing Economies
    Authors
    Marianna Albuquerque
    Rim Berahab
    Sabrine Emran
    Rogerio Studart
    Afaf Zarkik
    July 5, 2023
    This policy brief was originally published on t20ind.org   Despite the perception of abundant financial resources and technology worldwide, building quality project pipelines of sustainable infrastructure and securing funding for them remains a challenge for most developing countries. One potential solution to these obstacles is international cooperation among governments through enhancing cooperation among their national, regional, and multilateral development banks, wh ...
  • External Debt Management in Africa: A Proposal for a ‘Debt Relief for Climate Initiative’
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    Hinh T. Dinh
    Karim El Aynaoui
    Hafez Ghanem
    Badr Mandri
    June 20, 2023
    This policy brief was originally published on T20 India website   A decade of poor growth, increased poverty, and political instability followed the serious debt difficulties that emerged worldwide in the 1980s. There are concerns that the looming debt crisis could create similar challenges and result in even more severe consequences. However, the current economic climate differs in many ways from that of the 1980s, when international banks and Paris Club credi ...
  • Commerce et environnement : sont-ils inconciliables ?
    June 15, 2023
    Dr. Zaki Chahir, professeur en économie, a récemment publié un article intitulé "What Type of Trade is Promoted by Environmental Regulations" (Quel type de commerce est favorisé par les réglementations environnementales ?), dans lequel il examine l'imp...
  • Download PDF
    Financing Climate Action: Equity Challenges and Practical Solutions
    Authors
    Rabi Mohtar
    April 26, 2023
    It is estimated that $1 trillion to $6 trillion per year (up to 2050) needs to be invested globally if the world is to stay below the 2°C global warming ceiling of the Paris Agreement and to meet its adaptation goals. Currently, investments stand at about $630 billion per year, way below the original target. And although great efforts have been made in the climate-finance area, more than 70% of the funds deployed have gone to one sector, renewable energy, followed by the transportat ...
  • The Amazon Needs the Rule of Law, Not the Rule of Chainsaw
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    March 7, 2023
    In April 2007, on my first day as vice president at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington D.C., I received an informal visit from Thomas E. Lovejoy, a celebrated American environmental scientist who died last year. He spoke to me of a “turning point” in deforestation in the Amazon, beyond which the consequences would be irreversible. He was interested in knowing how the IDB could help in the fight against deforestation. Thomas and the Brazilian environmental scien ...
  • Tarification Carbone et Développement économique
    July 6, 2022
    Le Policy Center for the New South et Enel Green Power Maroc co-organisent un webinaire sur "la tarification du carbone et le développement économique". Cette rencontre permettra de débattre des défis, des avantages et des limites des mécanismes de tarification du carbone et de leur imp...
  • Atlantic Currents : Rim Berahab and the Threat of Climate Change
    May 10, 2022
    This is an exclusive interview with Rim Berahab, Senior Economist at the Policy Center for the New South, who engages with Helmut Sorge, Columnist at the Policy Center for the New South, in a conversation about the great threat of the climate crisis. Rim Berahab is the author of Chapter...