Webinar - 22nd Jan 5.30pm UK - Can local currency financing help solve the climate and debt crisis?

WEAll Members Events & Updates
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Happy New Year all!

Positive Money is running a webinar next week:

Can local currency financing help solve the climate and debt crisis?

with the Institute for Economic Justice in South Africa - 5.30pm UK GMT Thursday 22nd January - which we thought you might be interested in joining.

Also, here are some social posts, any shares of which would be much appreciated!

Below is a short blurb, with full details available on the Eventbrite page, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Hannah

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Around 3.4 billion people now live in countries that spend more paying off the interest on their national debt than they do on health or education, and interest payments reached a record $921bn in 2024. At the same time, climate finance remains woefully inadequate and fails to reach those who are most exposed to the climate crisis. So how did we get here, and how do we begin to tackle this problem?

Join us for an online discussion between expert panellists on credible alternatives to todayā€™s unfair global financial landscape, followed by a Q&A with the online audience.

Speakers:

  • Dr Redge Nkosi (Executive Director, Firstsource Money and Monetary Reform International)

  • Dr Pepukaye Bardouille (Director of Bridgetown Initiative and Special Adviser on Climate Resilience, Barbados PMā€™s Office)

  • Fernanda Balata (Associate Fellow, New Economics Foundation)

  • Dr Mzwanele Ntshwanti (G20 Senior Researcher, Institute for Economic Justice)

  • Dr Danisha Kazi (Head of Research, Positive Money and panel chair)

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Thanks for sharing Hannah- I have also shared to WEAllā€™s Network Calendar! :dizzy:

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Thanks for sharing @Hannah-Dewhirst. I just signed up!

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Thanks Thobile! Is there a link for that too, for adding potential future events?

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@Hannah-Dewhirst when you use the term ā€œLocal Currencyā€ I presume you are speaking of ā€œnational currencyā€ or do you mean a local complementary currency like the Sarafu in Kenya - https://sarafu.network/

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Hi Leanne, Yes, effectively we mean national currencies that are not major reserve currencies like the dollar, yen, euro, or sterling, so those lower in the currency hierarchy which currently have limited acceptance and liquidity for trade, debt, and finance. What specific currency would be used in each case depends on the context, but the purpose would be to ensure a larger role for the domestic national currency for any given country, hence why the term ā€˜localā€™ is helpful. Typically the term ā€˜local currency financingā€™ refers to national currencies rather than complementary or community currencies. The focus of the webinar is on what greater use of these national currencies might mean for debt sustainability, policy space, and climate action. Hopefully that makes things clearer!
Best, Hannah

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In contrast, my group is having a webinar to discuss the flim ā€˜Purposeā€™ which seems to be a top-down approach to policy activism (although I have not yet watched the film); and we will compare it to a bottom-up approach with Complementary Currencies: e.g. Exploring the LocalScale Ecosystem | The LocalScale Podcast for Bioregional Regeneration

I presume your group will include significant discussion around capital controls? This in effect is what a complementary currency is, where there is no exchange into national currency, but only into goods and services..

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Thanks Leanne, Iā€™ll pass this podcast onto the rest of my team.
Afraid I donā€™t know how much capital controls will come up in the event later today, as my colleague Danisha is only chairing the panel, the speakers are all external. However there is a Q&A section at the end, so if you join youā€™ll be able to submit a question about this.
Best, Hannah

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Hannah, I donā€™t know why, but I canā€™t seem register or find the eventbrite invitation or link to this. I hope it goes well and please share the recording.

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Iā€™m sorry the Eventbrite link wasnā€™t working Leanna but you can now watch the recording of the webinar on our YouTube channel here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi6R4fkjfYc

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