Poorer countries spend five times more on debt than climate crisis – report

Charity says lower income countries handing over billions of dollars in debt is impeding their ability to tackle crisis

Lower income countries spend five times more on debt than coping with the impact of climate change and reducing carbon emissions, according to a leading anti poverty charity.

Figures from Jubilee Debt Campaign show that 34 of the world's poorest countries are spending $29.4bn (21.4bn) on debt payments a year compared with $5.4bn (3.9bn) on measures to reduce the impact of the climate emergency.