- 20/05/2025
- Posted by: Valerie Vaz MP
- Category: News
The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) held a roundtable celebrating the legacy of the late Pope Francis, Laudato Si and the new Pope Leo XIV on 20 May 2025 which I attended.
The roundtable enabled a discussion about the links between climate and debt given that 93% of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries are also facing a debt crisis. COP29 did not release the flow of funding to combat climate change.
Father Peter Hughes (pictured above), is a missionary priest in Peru and a good friend of Pope Leo XIV. He works with REPAM, the Ecclesial Network for the Pan-Amazon, supporting the rights and dignity of people living in the Amazon and Laudato Si and the forthcoming papacy. He said Pope Leo IX was committed to continue the work of Pope Francis.
This Month marks the 10 year anniversary of Laudato Si, ‘on care for our common home’, an encyclical letter written by Pope Francis which made a distinct link between “the pain of the Earth and the scream of the poor.”
I said it took a long campaign for debt forgiveness and that indigenous and first nation people’s rights had to be protected. They believed that the earth was for the benefit of all.
This year marks a ‘Jubilee’ year, a biblical concept which calls for periodic debt forgiveness to restore justice and human dignity. CAFOD presented their report ‘Jubilee 2025: The New Global Debt Crisis and its Solutions’, which recommends the following policies to advance a fair and functional debt system:
- Introduce debt justice legislation
- reform the International Monetary Fund
- Establish a public global debt registry
- Establish automatic mechanisms for the cancellation of debt payments following catastrophic events and applications for debt relief
- Include all lenders in debt relief on fair an comparable terms
- Create a new, comprehensive sovereign debt framework
There has been progress made on the UK’s commitment to climate action globally, including the Paris Agreement as we head to our 2030 commitments. There was a call to change the paradigm to “integral ecology” which includes financial and environmental issues.