Washington, DC — The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has launched a dashboard to track the debt distress and climate vulnerability of low- and middle-income countries around the world. The new tool is a response to concerns over the growing debt and climate crises affecting many countries in the Global South, an issue that has been a major focus of the recent UN Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville and the recent Jubilee Commission of Experts conference at the Vatican. It is likely to also garner significant attention at the upcoming COP30 climate summit in Brazil.

“Countries around the world are facing severe debt, development, and climate challenges that have been compounded by an unfair international financial architecture. Concurrently, Global North countries — in particular the US — are providing less support to the countries facing these challenges,” CEPR Senior Research Associate Ivana Vasic Lalovic, who created the dashboard, said. “It is my hope that this dashboard will offer a useful tool to researchers, officials, and civil society groups who continue to focus on these multiple crises despite the US and other wealthy countries’ retreat from them.” 

The dashboard includes data on 118 low- and middle-income countries as reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank International Debt Statistics. The data is mapped along with the countries’ respective climate vulnerability.

As of March 2025, 76 out of 124 low- and middle-income countries evaluated by the IMF and credit rating agencies were either already facing a debt crisis or are at risk of one. A significant majority of these — 62 countries — are also highly climate vulnerable, underscoring the intersection between unsustainable debt burdens and climate risks. Developing countries are forced to choose between meeting debt obligations and investing in vital public services, climate resilience, infrastructure, and other Sustainable Development Goals. 

“The debt and climate crises are interconnected,” Vasic Lalovic said. “Developing countries shouldn’t have to choose between paying off debt and funding climate preparedness and response.”

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