Debt for Climate and allies ask Pope Leo XIV to continue the work of the Holy Jubilee Year in Open Letter
- Debt for Climate
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Summary: Debt for Climate and their allies are sending an open letter to Pope Leo XIV. They call on the Church to treat every day following the formal closing of the 2025 Jubilee Year as if it were still the Jubilee year, until unconditional debt cancellation and land restitution are achieved. The open letter has been signed by faith, debt and climate focused organizations and groups, including Eurodad, APMDD, Debt Justice Norway and UK, ActionAid International, Jubilee South and Christians for Future. It has also been signed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. For supporting this call, debt, climate and faith-focused organisations can still sign the letter until the 4th of January 2026 by filling out this form: Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV and the Catholic Church.
The 2025 Jubilee is coming to an end, yet many countries in the Global South are still up to their necks in illegitimate debt. Not only does growing debt prevent sufficient funds from being available for climate action and adaptation, healthcare and education, it also forces many countries to continue letting extractivists industries, including fossil fuels, operate in their territories in order to pay off their debts. Meanwhile, Global North countries and corporations, who caused and mainly contributed to the climate crisis, keep profiting from both the international debt crisis and climate crisis.
2025 should have been a year of justice, but integral parts of the principles of the Jubilee such as unconditional debt cancellation, debt justice and land justice are still not met. Instead, debt burdens have worsened, inequality has risen, more land has been stolen and the climate crisis worsens with every day. The Global South needs the unconditional cancellation of illegitimate, illegal and odious debts. The closing of the 2025 Jubilee cannot pass without continuing the fight for justice that was promised.
We, as Debt for Climate and broader debt, faith and climate groups and organizations, have drafted the attached Open Letter to Pope Leo XIV. We call on the Church to treat every day following the formal closing as if it were still the Jubilee year, until we achieve unconditional debt cancellation and land restitution.
“The fight for the Jubilee demands cannot end at a closing ceremony and be only re-opened in 25 years, while debt keeps communities in crisis. As illegitimate debt pushes countries to extract more just to pay Global North creditors, we need leadership and organized peoples and movements that keep fighting every day to match the Jubilee promise: to cancel the debt and restore the land.”, states Jose Treviño, Global North Coordination of Debt for Climate.
Signatories: The open letter is endorsed by debt, faith and climate organizations including Eurodad, APMDD, Debt Justice Norway and UK, ActionAid International, Jubilee South Brazil and Christians for Future. Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel also supports our cause with his signature.
Contact: Email: press@debtforclimate.org
About Debt for Climate: Debt for Climate (D4C) is a global anti-colonial and anti-patriarchal grassroots movement of movements, led by the Global South with presence in more than 25 countries. We are building power from the bottom up by uniting workers, Indigenous Peoples, women, faith, environmental, social and climate justice movements in the Global North and South. We call for the total and unconditional cancellation of the illegitimate financial debts imposed on Global South countries, especially in the face of the severe climate crisis, enabling self-determined just transitions away from fossil fuels, and the implementation of a New International Economic Order (NIEO).
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