Polluting Rich Nations Owe The Gambia $4.8B Yearly in Climate Debt

By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT

A recent report published by ActionAid reveals that the Gambia and African countries are “owed US$36 trillion in climate debt by rich polluting countries.” The “Who Owes Who?” report, published on February 5, 2025, offers a more holistic approach to debt by considering external debts, climate debts, and reparations. It amplifies the African Union’s 2025 theme, “The Year of Reparations.”

Askanwi’s review of the report and data indicates that The Gambia is owed US$4.8 billion annually in climate debt repayments compared to the US$39.7 million the country paid to rich polluting countries in 2023.

Looking at the bigger picture, the report highlights that low- and lower-middle-income [lower-income] countries owe a total external debt of UD$1.45 trillion. A paltry sum, compared to the minimum of US$ 107 trillion in climate debt owed by rich polluting countries. Every year, lower-income countries pay US$ 138 billion in external debts; meanwhile, rich polluting countries fail to pay US$ 4 trillion annually.

Image from ActionAid Who Owes Who? Report

African Union’s Year of Reparations—2025

Without considering reparations owed to African countries from slavery, these statistics have emboldened talks of debt cancellations and for rich polluting countries to start paying climate debts owed to lower-income countries.

A collective statement by ActionAid Country Directors in Africa highlights that “The African Union has declared 2025 to be the Year of Reparations. This year is framed around justice for Africans and peoples of African descent through reparations, and there are already powerful statements emerging, such as the Accra Proclamation on Reparations in November 2023, where connections are being made to the need to overhaul the IMF and World Bank. A Global Reparation Fund was also established at this conference in Ghana.”

Because historic reparations owed by former colonies from the transatlantic slave trade involve calculating compensation for incalculable suffering, unlike climate debt, they have not been systematically codified.

Illicit Financial Flows and Failed Aid Promises

Another avenue considered in ActionAid’s wider approach to debt repayments concerns illicit financial flows and failed aid promises. An analysis of illicit financial flows shows that a colonial legacy persists as huge sums of money are accumulated and lying in tax havens, “most of which are based in or directly linked to former colonial powers, in particular, the UK through its web of crown dependencies. It is estimated that between US $21 and US $32 trillion of financial assets are now sitting in offshore tax havens.” Calls for former colonies taking advantage of tax havens to pay back monies owed in tax revenue continue growing but will need more collective action from lower-income countries.

The Who Owes Who? report reveals that “in 1970 a clear target was agreed in a United Nations resolution that ‘each economically advanced country will progressively increase its official development assistance […] and will exert its best efforts to reach a minimum net amount of 0.7% of its gross national product by the middle of the decade’.”

But this has not been done.

One research referenced in the report highlights that only “US $223.7 billion was mobilised in 2023, representing an average of 0.37% of the Gross National Product of OECD DAC members. If the 0.7% target was met, an additional US$ 193 billion would have been raised in 2023 alone.”

The Gambia and Africa’s Debt Situation

With a significant chunk of domestic revenue from lower-income countries going to debt repayments, this has led to reduced spending on health and education. An analysis of 43 lower-income African countries reveals that a total of 11 African countries are in debt distress, while 12 are at high risk of debt crisis, including The Gambia.

Looking at health, The Gambia is among 28 African countries that spend more than double on debt repayments than on health, while another six African countries pay more on debt than on health.

Data from ActionAid Who Owes Who? Research

Education spending is slightly better, with 7 African countries spending more than double on debt repayments than on education. The Gambia is among the 16 African countries that spend more on debt repayments than on education.

Data from ActionAid Who’s Owes Who? Research

At the start of 2024, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs reported that the country’s total debt stock stood at D110.6 billion, with D68.7 billion owed externally while D42 billion was owed domestically. The country’s total debt stock increased by D10 billion from 2022 to 2023, third only to a D14.1 billion increase in 2017 and a D13.9 billion increase in 2022.

According to the 2025 Approved Budget, The Gambia is set to pay over 20% of its total budget in national debt (US$157 million). This includes domestic and external debts. On the other hand, only 12% and 8% of the total budget will go towards education and health expenditure this year. The data from this year's approved budget shows that debt repayments are 2.2 times the amount spent on health and 1.7 times the amount spent on education.

Digitised from the 2025 Approved Budget © Askanwi

The Who Owes Who? report is backed by data and tabulates figures for the Gambia’s total external debts owed and the total climate debt owed when emissions are considered from 1960. According to the World Bank and the World Development Indicators Databank, The Gambia owes a total external debt exceeding US$1.2 billion; however, The Gambia is owed over $120 billion in climate debt by rich polluting countries.

According to the Who Owes Who? report, The Gambia is owed 100 times what it owes externally, without considering illicit financial flows, failed aid promises, and reparations from the colonial legacy of slavery. The new information put forward can serve as significant data to back the country’s demand for debt cancellation from rich, polluting countries and for them to start paying climate debts owed.

Strategies to Achieve Climate and Debt Justice

However, this can only be achieved through collective bargaining, which challenges the IMF, the World Bank, and other creditors to renegotiate and cancel unpayable and odious debts. Governments can support “a UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt as a clear outcome of the Financing for Development conference, to be followed up through the UN General Assembly.”

ActionAid highlights that “lower-income countries can very legitimately argue that ‘we won’t pay if you don’t pay’ because the real debts of rich countries are greater than the external debts owed by lower-income countries.”

And it’s not only governments that are tasked with taking action for this to be achieved.

“Civil society movements can equally demand that their governments stand up for debt justice in regional and global negotiations, arguing, ‘We shouldn’t pay them if they don’t pay us.’"

If Gambian stakeholders and the government could mobilise and advocate for climate debt repayments alone, this could potentially earn the country US$ 4.8 billion every year from rich polluting countries, which translates to D334.8 billion every year at today’s exchange rate. Currently, the country's national budget is only D52.9 billion.

The annual climate debt repayments owed to The Gambia could cover the government’s yearly budget six times with billions still left to spare.