Within the framework of a collaboration with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and the Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa (JENA), with the scientific contribution of Deloitte, have prepared the expository paper 'Bridging the North-South Divide: A Shared Responsibility for Economic and Ecological Justice', intended to provide research-based metrics for the Thematic Note 'Jubilee 2025: remission of the ecological debt'.
About the paper
The paper provides data-driven insights on the deepening chasm between the Global North and Global South, reflected in the dual crises of financial debt and ecological degradation. It asserts that the debt owed by developing nations is mirrored by an ecological debt owed by industrialised nations - a reality that continues to shape our global inequities.
Drawing on rigorous research and rooted in the Church’s commitment to integral human development, the paper calls for shared responsibility, structural reform and coordinated global action. Without bold and collective measures, these intertwined crises risk entrenching cycles of poverty, environmental collapse and systemic injustice.
This collaboration affirms a common conviction: that a more just and sustainable world is possible - and that economic and ecological justice must go hand in hand.