Protesters march to the U.S. Embassy to call for overhaul of global financial system, joining worldwide protests ahead of UN finance conference

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Over a thousand members of economic, finance and climate justice groups marched to the U.S. Embassy today to demand major reforms to the global economic and financial system, in time for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Sevilla, Spain, where world leaders will meet from June 30 to July 3 to address the financing needs of the developing world.

The march in Manila was organized by the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), as part of worldwide protests held simultaneously in Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and Latin America.

According to the OECD, the gap between development financing needs and available resources will rise to USD 6.4 trillion by 2030 without a drastic overhaul of the global financial system. The global actions called for wealth taxes to generate revenue and debt cancellation to free up fiscal space.

Protestors also called on the governments of rich countries to deliver climate finance to developing countries, as economic losses induced by climate change exhaust their public funds. Since 2015, development finance needs have risen by 36%, partly due to the impacts of the climate crisis.

The FFD4 also presents a historic opportunity to continue pushing for democratic debt governance through a UN Debt Convention, away from decision-making spaces dominated by the IMF, the World Bank, and Global North lenders.

Although the US, UK, EU, Japan, Switzerland and other Global North countries blocked the path in the negotiations to achieve this measure, the fight continues as civil society mounts global protests against a broken and unjust financial architecture that has led to the accumulation of unsustainable and illegitimate debts. This year, debt service payments will cost the Philippines up to PHP 877 billion, or 13.8% of the national budget.

“The Philippines is one of many developing countries caught in a worsening debt crisis, with no end in sight as lenders push debt as the solution to many problems, from economic downturns to climate change. The problem of debt accumulation is systemic and demands no less than a systemic solution, which is an overhaul of the international financial system. Establishing a UN Debt Convention is a key step in that direction,” said Rovik Obanil, secretary general of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC).

He added that Southern governments are also complicit in implementing onerous debt conditionalities, and urged the Philippine government to stop paying “illegitimate debts” such as debts bankrolling fossil fuel projects. Accompanying the calls for debt justice were calls for increased taxes on the rich and an end to illicit financial flows. The world loses an estimated USD 492 billion of revenue a year due to corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens to hide their wealth.

Half of those losses are enabled by the eight countries who opposed the UN Tax Convention: the US, UK, Canada, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. “Our world needs a massive transfer of resources from the rich to the poor, from North to South, and taxation is one of the most direct and transparent tools we have to make this happen. Taxing excessive wealth and ending tax abuse aren’t just about generating revenue for development, it’s about redistributive justice,” said Luke Espiritu, labor leader and president of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP).

He added that increasing taxes on elites and corporations should not be seen as permission to continue economic injustice: “These taxes must be accompanied by structural change that will facilitate the end of excessive wealth accumulation and profiteering.”

Despite contributing the least to the climate crisis, people in developing nations face the harshest economic impacts, as extreme weather events deplete their financial resources and deprive them of funds for essential social services.

In 2024, agricultural losses due to El Niño in the Philippines cost PHP 15.3 billion

This year, the Philippine government has allocated an unprecedented PHP 1 trillion of its national budget to mitigating and adapting to climate change.

According to Lidy Nacpil, climate activist and coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development:

“The people of the Global South have suffered enough injustice at the hands of the Global North. Why should the Filipino people pay the price for climate change, when we and the people of other Global South countries have done so little to cause it? Under the UN Climate Convention, Global North governments have an obligation to provide the Global South with trillions of public, unconditional, and non-debt-creating climate finance–yet they continually refuse to do so. Climate finance is a matter of survival for countries like ours, and we are here to demand the reparations we are rightfully owed.”

Developed countries are legally obligated to cover the costs of climate mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage in developing countries. Although developed countries have long claimed that they lack the public funds for climate finance, research has shown they can raise trillions by taxing polluters and profiteers, redirecting fossil fuel subsidies, and redistributing even just a fraction of their enormous military budgets. Climate activists emphasize that climate finance must be delivered in the form of public, predictable, grants-based finance, instead of loans that will only exacerbate the already unsustainable debt crises in the developing world.