The House of Representatives voted to increase Medicaid funding and incentives to support manufacturing jobs in Puerto Rico as part of the Build Back Better Act.

“This legislation means that Puerto Rico can access more resources that the island desperately needs,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network, which worked on debt and disaster relief for the island since 2015. "Faced with high poverty rates, debt crisis and natural disasters, Puerto Rico can really use the aid."

The Build Back Better Act provides Supplemental Security Income disability payments to Puerto Rico, benefiting 300,000 Puerto Rico residents. The bill includes the territory in child tax relief increases for the states. The legislation now heads to the Senate and if passed could be enacted into law this year.

In February, 20 major religious leaders representing Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, United Church of Christ and Evangelical Churches wrote to President Biden to support Puerto Rico. Leaders of the National and Puerto Rico Council of Churches, Catholic Charities and the General Bible Society also signed the letter to Biden.

Read the Jubilee USA Puerto Rico and US Religious Leaders Letter to President Biden here.

Read the Puerto Rico Religious Leader Stimulus Letter to Congress here.

Two hundred countries finalized an agreement during COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland to limit global warming. In 2009, developed countries promised $100 billion of annual climate funding to developing countries by 2020. According to the OECD, funding estimates will not be met before 2023. The agreement expresses regret about the missed finance target and calls for increasing support for developing countries. 

“The climate summit agreement recognizes the urgency of reaching the $100 billion target for developing countries and the reality that more support is needed,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network. "Debt relief can be an important resource for us to reach the levels of support developing countries need."

The Glasgow outcome noted concern with heightened debts as developing countries respond to the COVID crisis. The agreement asks development banks and lenders to consider climate vulnerabilities in determining access to aid and global reserve funds known as Special Drawing Rights. 

One provision advocated by developing countries failed to make it in the final COP26 agreement. An agreement failed on compensation for developing countries experiencing damage from extreme climate-driven weather events. Instead the summit outcome foresees a new body to offer technical assistance for developing countries combating the effects of climate change.

“Many developing countries are dealing with more frequent natural disasters," stated LeCompte. "We need processes to support vulnerable countries as they face more extreme weather events caused by climate change."

The deal proposes setting a new climate finance and aid goal by 2025. Some countries believe more than a trillion dollars is needed.

Read Jubilee USA's press release on climate funding and COP26 here.

Read Jubilee's new research on climate risks and COP26 here.

As the climate summit approaches its final days in Scotland, 200 countries negotiate an agreement to combat climate change. A key outstanding item is enacting the 2015 Paris agreement pledge to provide $100 billion to developing countries annually to deal with climate challenges. The OECD forecast that the financing pledge won't be met until 2023.

“Developing countries are dealing with a range of climate driven challenges from natural disasters to food shortages,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network. “We can't wait years for developing countries to get funding to combat the climate crisis. The crisis is now.” 

During COP26, Jubilee USA pushed world leaders to consider debt relief and using IMF emergency currency, or Special Drawing Rights, to fund the climate financing targets.

“World leaders should be looking at a range of ways to support funding for developing countries to deal with the climate crisis,”  noted LeCompte.

China and the US released a declaration pledging cooperation for a successful conference outcome and recognizing the importance of the $100 billion commitment.  

Mexican newspaper Omnia featured the Atlas of Vulnerability by Jubilee USA and LATINDADD in an article about how existing crises are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read an excerpt below (translated from Spanish) and find the full article here.

About Half of Mexicans Are Impoverished, Study Reveals

Latindadd concludes that Latin America and the Caribbean is the region most damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In accordance with Laitindadd, poverty acts as an amplifying factor for the economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the study, the more impactful vulnerabilities in Mexico come from the low growth of tax revenues, economic loss linked to natural disasters, low levels of savings, inequality in access to telecommunications and poor health infrastructure.

The document also measured other important items such as income inequality and wealth, of which Mexico is in the middle of the pack, with 45 points in the first case, and 77 in the second (the higher the greater inequality). The nation with the most contrasts is Brazil, with 53.4 and 84.9 percent, respectively.

Read more here.

Mexican newspaper La Silla Rota featured the Atlas of Vulnerability by Jubilee USA and LATINDADD in an article about how existing crises are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read an excerpt below (translated from Spanish) and find the full article here.

Mexico, Poor or Middle-Class Country?

According to the report entitled Vulnerability Atlas, the pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean documents that 48.8 percent of the Mexican population lives in poverty, while in Honduras 64.7 and in Guatemala, 59.3 percent. With this, Mexico is far from the countries that registered the best conditions, since Chile, Uruguay and Panama only have 10.8, 11.6 and 20.7 percent of their respective populations in precarious income.

According to Latindadd, poverty acts as an amplifying factor of the economic and health impacts left by the covid-19 pandemic.

Read the full article here.

Cronica Digital mentioned Eric LeCompte and Aldo Caliari in an article discussing Jubilee USA and Latindadd's new Pandemic Vulnerability Map. Read an excerpt below and the full article here. 

Latin America and the Caribbean is the Region in the World Most Effected by the COVID-19 Pandemic

Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte noted that the pandemic affected Latin America and the Caribbean more by factors such as dependence on tourism, decimated by shutdown; pre-existing levels of poverty and inequality; large informal sectors; and narrow tax bases.

LeCompte warned that only countries categorized by the World Bank as low-income can access emergency debt relief and other measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

For Latindadd and Jubilee, this approach can dangerously underestimate the way middle-income countries are suffering the damage of the pandemic.

“We need more action from rich countries so that developing countries can face the crisis,” said Jubilee USA Policy Director Aldo Caliari.

Read the full article here.

Counter Punch featured Eric LeCompte in an article about the need for greater commitments from wealthier countries in the fight against climate crises. Read an excerpt below and the full article here. 

How the Wealthiest Countries Schemed to Avoid Economic Commitments at COP26

Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, explained to me in an interview that developing countries are suffering from the fact that “their natural resources were taken during the industrialization period that took place in Europe and the United States in the 1800s and the 1900s, fueling the climate crisis.”

Most of these same nations were left out of the recent climate discussions by the G20, as they are too poor to be considered members of the exclusive club. It remains to be seen if these nations will be able to extract greater commitments at the COP26 meeting.

LeCompte reflected, “it seems right now that there is a lot of despair among countries in terms of if it’s going to be possible to fulfill” pledges like a $100 billion financing pledge to help poorer nations combat climate change. Indeed, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared on Twitter as the summit ended, “While I welcome the G20’s recommitment to global solutions, I leave Rome with my hopes unfulfilled.”

Read more here. 

Paraguay-based newspaper Última Hora featured the Atlas of Vulnerability by Jubilee USA and LATINDADD in an article about the challenges Latin American countries face in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. Read an excerpt below (translated from Spanish) and find the full article here.

Address vulnerabilities to transition to development

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’