Gallagher Comments on African Climate Summit
On September 6, 2023, Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, was featured on France24 to comment on the reforms being discussed at the annual African Climate Summit, which aims to support green development on the African continent for the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries.
Gallagher criticized the current global financial architecture, observing that its stringent conditions limit access to green capital. In addition, Gallagher called for a debt ‘haircut’ to allow African nations to start fresh and begin transitioning to a green, low-carbon economy.
He explained that three levels of reform, which would aid in expanding green capital and limiting debt distress, were underway at the Summit: first, to strengthen the International Monetary Fund and enhance their financial recovery packages to become conducive to disaster recovery; second, to expand multilateral development banks and increase their distribution of grants and concessionary finance; and third, to reform the Group of 20’s (G20) Common Framework to involve more countries and link itself to climate and development goals.
Watch the full interview on the France24 website.
Kevin Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, where he directs the Global Development Policy Center. He is the author or co-author of numerous books, including most recently, The Case for a New Bretton Woods (Wiley, 2022). Read more about Professor Gallagher on his Pardee School faculty profile.