Climate activists blocked access to the International Monetary Fund’s Paris office on Monday, with some taped their hands to the doors, demanding that developing countries’ debt be canceled to help fight climate change.
The Paris protest is part of a global “Debt for the Climate” campaign calling on the leaders of wealthy nations attending the G7 summit in Germany to cancel the debt of poorer and less industrialized countries known as the Global South .
While low-emission countries in the Global South contribute the least to climate change, experts say they tend to be the hardest hit.
“We must give these countries the means to fight the climate crisis. They are the first victims and the last responsible,” said an Extinction Rebellion activist who calls herself “Chalou,” one of dozens outside the IMF building in Paris’ affluent 16th arrondissement.
Several activists from Extinction Rebellion, Youth for Climate and 350.org taped their hands to glass doors at the building’s entrance, while others sat in front with their arms tied in tubes to make them more difficult to move.
The group unfurled a banner in front of the building that read “G7 Responsible, IMF Guilty,” while some activists scattered counterfeit bills reading “Stop Fossil Fuels.”
“The debt crisis is primarily the result of an unfair financial system dominated by the richest countries,” activist groups Extinction Rebellion, Attac-France and Youth for Climate France, which organized the Paris action, said in a statement.
“The G7, IMF and World Bank have a historic responsibility for developing this vicious cycle of debt (and) resource overexploitation,” they added.
Environmental activists have organized a series of protests in recent weeks to bring attention back to climate change as the energy crisis and war in Ukraine dominate the news agenda.
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