Eric LeCompte spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar, host of Rising Up With Sonali, in an episode entitled "Assessing the G-20 Summit on Taxation, Pandemic, and More". Read an excerpt below and listen to the full episode here.

Assessing the G-20 Summit on Taxation, Pandemic, and More

Selected Statements from Eric LeCompte

"At Jubilee, we look at what the structural policies of the financial system are which perpetuate inequality. We look at what the processes are that either we lack or the policies for why we have extreme poverty in the world, and one of those is debt. Countries have debts that are so high they're unable to pay for social services." 

"Countries that were really teetering on the edge before the pandemic are now fully in crisis. We're seeing food shortages around the world. We're seeing significant increases in job loss, with 400m jobs lost mostly in developing middle-income countries."

"COP26 is certainly an important meeting, and it's happening right after the G-20. I think one of the pieces in terms of bold, ambitious commitments that should come out of COP is that it has to influence the G-20 and the IMF, because these institutions will make some of the most significant decisions regarding our planet and climate change over the next 5 years."

Listen to the full episode here.

As climate talks continue in Scotland, new research shows that developing countries lack the resources to respond to the climate crisis.

"The Glasgow meetings are critical to protect our planet and the poor who suffer the worst impacts of climate change,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network. “Climate-induced natural disasters and food shortages disproportionately affect developing countries."

Ahead of COP26, Jubilee USA Network and LATINDADD released the Atlas of Vulnerability, focused on 24 Latin American and Caribbean developing countries. The map and research found 75% of countries fall below the global average in country capacity to respond to climate change.

"Debt relief can be an effective tool for helping developing countries take action to respond to climate-caused challenges," noted Jubilee USA's Senior Policy Director, Aldo Caliari. Caliari was one of the authors of the new climate research and wrote a paper last year on debt, climate and pandemic response.

The IMF calculates that developing country costs to deal with climate change rises to $140 billion to $300 billion by 2030. According to the United Nations, half of developing countries pay more than 25% of their budgets servicing debt. In October, 48 vulnerable countries asked for a process to use debt relief to support climate action.

“Developing countries struggle with rising debt levels and responding to the pandemic,” added LeCompte. “Debt relief and additional aid are essential for developing countries as they fight climate change."

In 2009 wealthy countries promised $100 billion in annual financing to developing countries by 2020. According to the OECD, developed countries provided almost $80 billion in 2019 and according to 2020 estimates, it was unlikely that the $100 billion target was met. COP26 brings together delegates from 200 countries to agree on climate actions. The meeting in Glasgow, Scotland comes six years after the Paris Agreement, a deal to address the earth's warming temperature caused by fossil fuel use.

Explore the interactive Jubilee USA Network and LATINDADD Atlas of Vulnerability: Developing Countries and the Pandemic here.

Read highlighted findings from the Atlas of Vulnerability here.

Read the briefing paper "Atlas of Vulnerability: The Pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean" here.

Read the paper on debt and climate from Jubilee USA's Aldo Caliari here.

The National Catholic Reporter mentioned Eric LeCompte's article on the global COVID response in Barron's. Read the excerpt below and the full article here.

Links: Big Pharma fearmongering; Mark Zuckerberg's Meta; antisemitism on the left

by Michael Sean Winters

At Barron's, Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA, calls on the G20 summit leaders to leave no country behind as they continue to forge the global response to COVID-19 and the economic dislocation the virus has created. LeCompte is one of the few people who master both Catholic social doctrine and issues of international finance and policy, and can translate the moral principles into policy action. Let's hope the leaders were listening.

Read the full article here.

Crux spoke with Eric LeCompte on the 26th Annual UN Climate Change Conference or COP26. Read the excerpt below and the full article here.

Catholic activists say COP26 is about ‘caring for your neighbor’

Instituto Humanitas Unisinos in Brazil featured Eric LeCompte in an article on President Biden's meeting with Pope Francis. Read the excerpt below and the full article here.

Biden praises Pope Francis as "the foremost warrior for peace"

Eric LeCompte , executive director of Jubilee USA Network , told NCR that the meeting between Biden  and Francisco is "crucial" as it highlights "the two most important and open leaders in global policy change before the G20 ."

"The most important decisions on climate change in our lives will be made over the next five years in the G20 and the International Monetary Fund ," said LeCompte . On behalf of Jubilee USA , an interfaith organization that advocates debt relief for countries development, he praised the Biden administration , saying the United States "is now the leading government in responding to the global climate crisis."

LeCompte said the Biden administration was the first to require all government agency spending to comply with its climate mitigation policies.

“No one else in the G20 has really started to do this yet,” he said, adding that he believes Biden's meeting with the pope offers a “united front” to pressure other presidents and prime ministers to do the same.

Read the full article here.

Eric LeCompte wrote a guest article in Barron's on the need to include middle-income countries in a global COVID-19 response and recovery. Read an excerpt below and read the full article here.

The Global Covid Response Is Leaving Millions Behind

We can only end the pandemic if we end it everywhere. Yet, across the world, Covid recovery efforts are leaving hundreds of millions of people behind. As policymakers seek the best way out of the crisis, their efforts should incorporate what we now know: It’s more difficult for developing countries to respond to the pandemic.

The Covid-19 crisis hit developing countries harder than wealthy countries and the effects will linger longer. The International Monetary Fund projects that advanced economies will return to their prepandemic growth trends in 2022, while developing countries will see persistent losses continue for several more years.

A new interactive map and database published by my organization, Jubilee USA Network, and our partners, LATINDADD, shows why developing countries face greater pandemic health and economic challenges.

The database, called the Atlas of Vulnerability, identifies pre-existing challenges that 24 developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean face. These vulnerabilities heightened the impact of the coronavirus crisis. While these developing countries are crushed by the ongoing pandemic, they are left out of solutions decided by world leaders because they are not classified by the World Bank as “low-income.”

Read more here.

The National Catholic Reporter quoted Eric LeCompte on a meeting between President Joe Biden and Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 29. Read the excerpt below or read the full article here.

286 Organizations Call G20 to More Action

The National Catholic Reporter mentioned Eric LeCompte's discussion about labor, religion, politics and public engagement at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. Read the excerpt below or read the full article here.

Links: Latino voters in Virginia; Missouri's MAGA warrior; flying on French-fry fuel

Several on-campus institutes at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, hosted a discussion about labor, religion, politics and public engagement last week, featuring Eric LeCompte, executive director at Jubilee USA, and Damon Silvers, assistant to the president and special counsel at the AFL-CIO. Worth taking the time to watch. Their reflections on the devastation in Puerto Rico after the twin hurricanes of 2017 are moving — and more than moving, they are poignant.

Read more here.

Eric LeCompte was mentioned by Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs on the G20's opportunity to mend divides between rich and poor countries exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the excerpt below or read the full article here.

Is This a Kairos Moment for the G20 to Address Inequalities?

Divergent paths and inequalities are a stark reality that mark the COVID-19 era. The global emergencies affect different individuals very differently. Everyone shares in uncertainties, well aware of deaths, illness, and economic disruptions, but some have actually seen their wealth increase and savored time for reflection and new ventures. For others, however, grief, hunger, and disrupted relationships dominate life. The situation for nations also ranges widely. All face setbacks and need to adjust hopes and plans, but many are looking catastrophe in the face, with decades of progress wiped out.

Deep economic and financial crises for states are the most immediate challenge for the G20 summit, and attention was called particularly to Africa and to especially vulnerable communities. An invited panelist, Eric LeCompte, Jubilee USA, could not participate in person but the discussion highlighted that faith-linked network’s active and continuing engagement with the G20 process and leaders on precisely these challenges.

Read more here.