MANILA–Over a thousand members of economic, finance, and climate justice groups marched to the U.S. Embassy on June 27, 2025 to demand major reforms to the global economic and financial system.
The demonstration in Manila was part of a series of worldwide protests held simultaneously across Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and Latin America. The coordinated actions come ahead of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Sevilla, Spain, where world leaders will gather from June 30 to July 3 to address the financing needs of the developing world.
The march was organized by the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), as protesters echoed urgent calls for wealth taxes to generate public revenue and for the cancellation of unsustainable debts to free up fiscal space in developing countries.
Citing an OECD report, the protesters said 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. Since 2015, development finance needs have increased by 36%, driven in part by escalating climate change impacts.
Protesters also pressed rich nations to deliver on their long-overdue climate finance commitments, as climate-induced economic losses continue to deplete the already strained public funds of vulnerable countries.
The FFD4, they said, presents a historic opportunity to push for democratic debt governance through a UN Debt Convention—shifting power away from institutions like 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) in a press statement.
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.
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.
“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, the groups said.
Photo by Kenosis Yap / Mata: Asia Press Photo
