Ghana and other climate-vulnerable countries in the Global South need debt relief and more grant-based climate finance to create fiscal space for climate adaptation and essential public services, ActionAid has said.
The call follows a report estimating that countries in the Global South will pay about US$8.8 trillion in debt repayments in 2026, equivalent to 43.5% of their budget revenues.
By comparison, the Global South received about US$39 billion in grant-based climate finance from the Global North in 2024.
ActionAid said this means the Global South is paying roughly 225 times more in debt repayments than it receives in climate finance grants.
The organisation is calling for climate finance to be delivered predominantly as grants rather…