Threading the needle: the delicate art of designing debt-for-nature swaps

Join our climaTRACES Lab workshop

Speaker: Alexander Dryden, PhD Student, SOAS University of London

Debt-for-nature swaps (D4NS) have re-emerged as a prominent tool in sovereign climate finance, yet their effectiveness remains contested. This paper introduces a new database of 169 D4NS transactions across 45 countries from 1987 to 2025 and proposes a unified framework to evaluate their financial and environmental performance. While early swaps were small but environmentally robust, recent transactions tend to be larger yet deliver limited debt relief and diluted environmental outcomes. The paper concludes with recommendations for a more effective next generation of D4NS, including the creation of a dedicated distressed debt facility.

 The weekly climaTRACES workshops, organised by Kamiar Mohaddes and Henning Zschietzschmann, are attended by a diverse group of people from economics, geography, politics, engineering, business, earth sciences, natural sciences and history, generating interdisciplinary discussion. One person leads the session, on either a paper they have written, a work in progress or just an idea they have and would like feedback on. This is also an opportunity for people to find our more about the team on what climaTRACES have been up to and what future events and research projects are being developed.

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No registration required. If you have any questions about this seminar, please email Henning Zschietzshmann.

Please note, this workshop is an in-person event but in case you are not able to attend, you can also join the workshop virtually on Zoom.