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27.2.2023

Open Letter to Christian Lindner, Finance Minister of Germany

Federal Ministry of Finance Berlin, Germany

Dear Mr. Lindner,

The global grassroots movement Debt for Climate is inviting you to meet with representatives from countries most affected by the intersecting climate & debt crises on February 27th 2023, in order to talk about debt cancellation for the Global South to enable a self-determined and just transition.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the London Agreement, through which Germany received a 50% cut of the debt it had accumulated from before, during, and after World War II. Some of the countries that allowed Germany to experience its so-called economic miracle through this debt relief (e.g. Argentina, Pakistan) are today heavily indebted. Yet Germany obstructs any progressive steps to relieve those countries of their heavy debt burden while they are experiencing the devastating consequences of the climate crisis at the same time (1).

Germany is not only the world's 4th largest historical polluter as well as the 4th largest voting power in the IMF but also owes much of its current economic power to debt cancellation and the extremely favorable conditions which were stipulated for Germany to pay back the remaining debt. No country of the Global South is afforded similarly favorable conditions today, such as the possibility to pay back their debts in their own currency. This only exemplifies the continuation of colonial relationships between Global North and South, from which Germany has profited massively and which it helps to uphold through the purposeful indebtedness of countries of the Global South.

Germany not only has the power, but also the responsibility to cancel this illegitimate financial debt of the most affected countries today. You, Mr. Lindner, as the German Finance Minister, together with Mr. Nagel as head of the Deutsche Bundesbank, are the German representatives in these discussions and thus carry the responsibility to take this step forward to enable a self- determined and just transition in the Global South as a first meaningful step towards paying Germany’s climate debt.

On August 20, 2022, during the “Tag der offenen Tür” at the Ministry of Finance, you publicly agreed to demand debt cancellation for the Global South (2) during your trip to Washington DC to represent Germany at the annual meeting of the IMF & WB in October 2022. However, this promise was not fulfilled, forcing us to scale up protests and occupy the Finance Ministry upon your return, on October 17, 2022. When confronted again by Debt for Climate activists at your office then, you claimed to be conducting negotiations “at eye level” with African leaders towards this goal, and that this matter is a “personal concern” of yours (3).

We would like to offer you an opportunity to stand by your word and to publicly meet representatives of Debt for Climate who are willing to discuss debt cancellation for the Global South at eye level with you on February 27th between 11:00hs and 13:00hs outside your ministry in Berlin, Germany.

If debt cancellation was possible in 1953 for the country responsible for WWII to ensure the maintenance of US hegemony and prevent Germany from falling into communism, it is most certainly possible to cancel the debt of countries that are most affected by the climate and debt crises today to pave the way towards a self-determined and just transition that would benefit the entire planet with an unprecedented scale of climate action that could potentially leave trillions of euros of fossil fuels in the ground and without burdening the economically disadvantaged people with the costs of a crisis they have not caused.
Yours Sincerely,
Debt for Climate
Links:

1)    https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-12-12/imf-shareholders-deeply- divided-on-whether-to-suspend-surcharges-on-some-loans
2)    https://twitter.com/DebtforClimate/status/1562073640266506240? s=20&t=C4KhE5ik3KxwTX4r3FXNsw
3)    https://twitter.com/DebtforClimate/status/1603380685410107393? s=20&t=qZwubyRXRx7ODrFt04FBQw

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https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-26-cancel-odious-global-south-debt-to-accelerate-climate-justice/

Protesters from several organisations during the Debt For Climate Protest in Johannesburg on 14 October 2022. (Photo: Gallo Images / Alet Pretorius)

On Monday, 27 February Debt for Climate activists across the world and in South Africa will picket German embassies calling for the cancellation of odious debt. They say: ‘If debt cancellation was good enough for Germany in 1953, it is good enough for South Africa and the Global South in 2023’.

Let’s go on a journey, beginning in Germany on 27 February 1953, and ending in South Africa in the not-so-distant future.

This South Africa has justly transitioned to clean renewable energy and is a positive force for its people and the planet. It’s a Mzansi where green infrastructure has allowed us to capture our god-given energy sources like the sun, wind and water, and rolling blackouts are a thing of the past. 

In this future possibility, our labourers move in electric-powered taxis not to the choking mines, but to sunny solar farms. Their children in Emalahleni, Sebokeng and Middelburg drink clean water and breathe clean air.

A new generation ushers in a sustainable technological revolution, expanding the middle class, 20 million jobs are created, the crime rate plummets, and #eskom is no longer trending on Twitter — what a beautiful destination indeed.

How do we get there from 1953?

By travelling back in time. June 2023, after climate-denier David Malpass steps down as chair of the World Bank due to public pressure, a leader from the Global South is elected through a democratic process. Germany, spurred by the protest actions on 27 February 2023 at its embassies in Pretoria and around the world, puts its considerable influence behind the call to cancel South Africa’s odious World Bank and IMF debt.

The debt is cancelled and the West takes the boot of imperialism off South Africa’s neck long enough for us to realise our dreams. Mine workers, trade unionists, truckers and taxi drivers, nurses, teachers, immigrants and South Africans of all colours and creeds join together to say, “Enough! We demand clean, affordable, sustainable energy!”

For now, South Africa is the most mineral-rich country (barring oil) in the world. We export between 50-85 million tonnes of coal for profit and that money — besides making some men unfathomably rich — barely scratches the surface of our crushing debt. Without the debt, we could keep that coal in the ground and use only what’s necessary while we transition to clean renewables. 

Let’s continue on our journey.

In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine triggered mass disinvestment from Russian oil. Germany, heavily dependent on Russian oil, missed the opportunity to pivot to renewables, and sought new oil around the world, cementing its status as the sixth-biggest global polluter (after China, the US, India, Russia and Japan). 

Germany has a Social Democrat chancellor, whose government was formed in coalition with the strongest Green Party in the world and is the fourth-largest economy on the planet. It is primed to be a leader in averting climate catastrophe but is choosing the status quo instead. But before this disappointing missed opportunity, Germany had a direct hand in digging South Africa’s debt mine.

Most recently, KfW, the German Development Bank loaned €300-million to a bankrupt, leaderless, Eskom to hook green power stations into the National Energy Grid. This investment has well-meaning supporters, but the problem is that we — and KfW — know that the money will be misused.

In 2010, Germany supported a World Bank loan of $3.75-billion for the construction of the Medupi power station. This project was rife with corruption, most notably, the “improper payments” made to the ANC by industrial manufacturer Hitachi to guarantee its contract tobuild this planet destroyer. Hitachi’s European headquarters are in Germany and were at the time chaired by “soft-spoken German” Klaus-Dieter Rennert.

If loans are contracted by a government against the interests of its people and the creditors cannot prove they were unaware of how the borrowed money would be used, then the debt is odious. Any debt incurred after the 2015 US Securities and Exchange Commission findings of corruption with Medupi easily meets that criterion.

The criterion is also met in the $94-million in World Bank and smaller credit loans (some German) granted to Eskom since 1951. Half of the apartheid-era loans were made after the world witnessed the Sharpeville massacre, meaning the banks knew exactly who they were lending to and lent anyway. 

We’ve arrived at 27 February 1953. 

Nine years after the Nazi government perpetuated one of the largest genocides in human history, West Germany’s debt was cancelled with the signing of the London Agreement. Germany went on to grow its economy to join the global “development” banking powerhouses that keep South Africa beholden to fossil fuel extraction. Certainly, if debt cancellation was good enough for Germany in 1953, it is good enough for South Africa and the Global South in 2023.

Inspired? We invite you to join the Debt4Climate movement in the call for debt cancellation for the Global South in the name of climate justice. Call on our government to leave fossil fuels in the ground. DM/MC/OBP

Madison Bannon is an activist, writer and educator. She is the head producer of The Delve podcast, a US-based political news show, and a justice-focused communications specialist for NGOs. Sunny Morgan is a climate justice activist and co-founder of the Debt for Climate movement.

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