· 4 min read
In 1956, facing a severe debt crisis, Argentina convened a meeting in Paris with its international creditors. That gathering gave birth to the Paris Club—an enduring platform for sovereign debt renegotiation. Seventy years later, in the face of an interconnected environmental, economic, and social polycrisis, we urgently need a new kind of club—one centered not on monetary liabilities alone, but on ecological value and planetary justice.
The climate, pollution, natural resources and biodiversity crises are no longer side notes in the global agenda; they are its very foundation. Science tells us we are nearing 1.5°C of global warming and crossed environmental thresholds that expose entire nations to intensifying vulnerability, disrupting food systems, and undermining the viability of territories and economies.
And yet, in the heart of this crisis lies an untapped asset: nature. According to the World Economic Forum, over 50% of global GDP depends on the ecosystem services that nature provides. The World Bank has similarly highlighted that natural capital remains invisible in most economic accounts, despite being as fundamental as produced or human capital. This omission is not merely technical—it is structural, and it is dangerous.
Environmental degradation is amplifying financial instability. Ecosystem collapse, extreme weather events, and biodiversity loss act as risk multipliers, increasing the cost of capital, seriously undermining the stability of the insurance industry and threatening macroeconomic resilience. This makes one thing clear: environmental action must not only be a moral imperative—it must become a strategic pillar in financial reform.
Toward an ecological turn in debt policy
We stand at a historical juncture. As the global South provides food, energy, and environmental stability to the world, it must also be recognized as a creditor in ecological terms. Its forests, rivers, wetlands, and biodiversity are sustaining planetary balance. Yet these assets are undervalued, unprotected, and unremunerated.
Pope Francis has called out this imbalance in Laudato Si’, stating “The foreign debt of poor countries has become a way of controlling them, yet this is not the case where ecological debt is concerned.” He reminds us that developing countries—those housing the planet’s richest biomes—“continue to fuel the development of richer countries at the cost of their own present and future.” The land of the poor is rich, largely unpolluted, and filled with life. But access to those goods and resources remains blocked by “a system of commercial relations and ownership which is structurally perverse.”
This must change. If debt is to be restructured, ecological value must be central to that process. Natural capital must be recognized as a legitimate basis for negotiating debt relief, accessing concessional finance, and designing new global economic instruments. Environmental policy should no longer be treated as a marginal cost—it must be viewed as a risk mitigator and a generator of prosperity.
A Buenos Aires Club for environmental creditors
The time has come to create a Buenos Aires Club of ecologic creditors—a coalition of nations from the Global South, united to negotiate on ecological terms. This platform would enable countries to coordinate positions, define how to value ecosystem services, and push for mechanisms that internalize environmental value in sovereign debt frameworks.
This is not an act of charity; it is a matter of global economic stability and justice. Without integrating natural capital into financial decision-making, we will continue to misprice risk, misallocate capital, and mismanage our planetary future.
Several countries are already integrating nature into economic planning. The UK, US, Chile, and Italy have established Natural Capital Committees, while others—such as Canada, India, Germany, and South Africa—are embedding ecosystem value into national accounts. Many of these efforts are aligned with the UN-backed “Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services” (NCAVES) initiative, which has helped countries pilot natural capital accounting through standardized methodologies. These advances reflect a growing consensus: nature is not just an environmental concern, but a strategic economic asset essential to resilience and shared prosperity.
We need a new discussion on how to articulate that framework—anchored in the recognition that ecological debt must be part of the global financial equation. It would assert that environmental actions are investments in stability, not luxuries. And it would define a collective framework to equitably compensate sustainability and environmental efforts, recognizing them as a new sector of economic value creation and preservation.
Toward a just economic transition
This is not just about accessing more resources. It is about building a development model that recognizes ecological interdependence, integrates planetary boundaries into economic planning, and prioritizes the well-being of communities over financial speculation.
To do this, we must stop treating nature as collateral damage in economic policy. Instead, we must recognize it as the very foundation of any economy worth sustaining.
Let us then reimagine development not as extraction, but as regeneration. Let us negotiate debt not only with banks, but with the Earth itself. And let us build a new financial architecture—one that begins, finally, to repay the real debt we owe.
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