Climate Facts: Developed nations owe Nigeria $9.9trn in climate change debt, says ActionAid

The complexities of climate change and its associated jargon can prove difficult to digest.

TheCable’s quick climate facts will help demystify these concepts through easy-to-understand and straight-to-the-point explanations.

Here are some to keep at the tip of your fingers:

• A new report by ActionAid says global north countries owe Nigeria about $9.9 trillion in climate debt — from 1960 to date.

• The report stated that rich polluting countries owe low-and lower-middle-income countries $107 trillion in climate debt — over 70 times more than the total foreign debt of $1.45 trillion collectively owed by lower-income countries. 

• The World Bank says climate change could cost $20.8 trillion in health impacts by 2050 across low and middle-income countries — about 1.3 percent of their GDP.

• The organisation said sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA) are projected to experience nearly one-half of all deaths caused by climate change between 2026 and 2050. 

• The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) says January 2025 was the hottest January on record.

• C3S said January 2025 saw an average surface air temperature of 13.23°C, 0.79°C above the 1991-2020 average, and an average sea surface temperature (SST) of 20.78°C — the second-highest value on record for the month after January 2024.