Rich nations have the opportunity to generate $6.6 trillion per year to fund climate action by ending fossil fuel subsidies and taxing major polluters, new research by Oil Change International has found.
The NGO’s report, We Can Pay for It, notes that through collective action, the public money needed to ‘finance a just transition to renewables and other urgent needs from healthcare to housing’ can be raised.
While governments committed to a fair, funded transition away from fossil fuels at COP28, the world is still off-track, Oil Change International noted.
Unlocking funding
According to the report, measures such as increasing taxes on the ultra-wealthy ($3.5 trillion), ending fossil fuel handouts ($1.1 trillion), closing corporate tax loopholes ($1.1 trillion), reforming public debt ($608 billion), and cutting military budgets ($280 billion) could unlock significant funding for climate-related actions.
Additional reforms to support Global South countries could raise an additional $4.4 trillion annually, it added.
‘Get on board’
“Our latest data exposes the lie perpetuated by fossil fuel CEOs, billionaires, and war hawks that we cannot afford to pay for climate action,” commented Bronwen Tucker, global public finance lead at Oil Change International. “The fact is that these rich polluters have made trillions off of rising inequality and worsening climate disasters in the last two decades. […] It’s time to stop the money flowing to climate culprits and use it to fund solutions instead.”
Tucker urged leaders in the EU, Canada, UK, and Australia to “get on board with Global South countries’ proposals to overhaul global finance rules to enable rather than hinder fair ‘polluter pays’ policies. This agenda will free up trillions in public money each year for urgent needs like renewable energy, affordable housing, universal healthcare, and addressing climate disasters.”
The findings were published to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week in New York last week. Read more here.
