Billionaires, frequent flyers, oil and gas: Who could fund COP29’s $1tn finance target?

“There is huge popular support in the G20 countries for a tax on the super-rich and it is important that the European countries in the G20 rally behind the Brazillian President to protect the unprecedented agreement on taxing extreme wealth achieved by the finance ministers in July,” says Kate Blagojevic, associate director of Europe campaigns at 350.org.

“It makes common sense to tax mega polluters and the mega-rich to ensure that we have the money needed for climate action at home and globally, which can prevent and repair damage from extreme weather like we have seen in Spain and in Central America over the last few weeks.”

Other countries have not been keen to criticise the proposal in public but many fear that announcing such a tax would cause these ultra-wealthy individuals to flee to nations with more attractive tax policies.

Spain’s economy minister Carlos Cuerpo urged countries on Monday before the G20 meeting to “be brave” and “do things that you are convinced are right”.

Could taxing big oil help pay the climate finance bill?

A small tax on just seven of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies would grow the UN’s Loss and Damage fund by more than 2,000 per cent, according to a new analysis published today by Greenpeace International and Stamp Out Poverty.

It says that introducing what it calls a Climate Damages Tax across OECD countries could play an essential role in financing climate action. This is described as a fossil fuel extraction charge applied to the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of each tonne of coal, barrel of oil or cubic metre of gas produced.

A tax starting at $5 (€4.74) – and increasing year-on-year – per tonne of carbon emissions based on the volumes of oil and gas extracted by each company would raise an estimated $900 billion (€853 billion) by 2030, it finds. The two groups say this money would support governments and communities around the world as they face growing climate impacts.

“Who should pay? This is fundamentally an issue of climate justice and it is time to shift the financial burden for the climate crisis from its victims to the polluters behind it,” says Abdoulaye Diallo, co-head of Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign.

Diallo adds that the analysis lays bare the scale of the challenge posed by the requirement for loss and damage funding “and the urgent need for innovative solutions to raise the funds to meet it”.

Could taxing frequent fliers help Europe raise climate finance funds?

In Europe, a tax on frequent fliers could raise €64 billion and slash emissions by a fifth, according to a report from environmental campaign groups Stay Grounded and the New Economics Foundation (NEF) published in October.

Currently, regardless of how many times a year you fly, you pay the same amount of aviation tax. But the report proposes an increasing level of tax for each flight a person takes in a year.

It would be added to all trips departing from the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK, excluding the first two journeys. There would also be a surcharge on the most polluting medium and long-haul flights as well as business and first-class seats.

For the first and second flights taken in a year, a €50 surcharge would be applied to medium-haul and €100 to long-haul, business and first-class flights. For the third and fourth flights, a €50 levy would be added to every ticket plus an additional €50 surcharge for medium-haul and €100 for longer distances and comfort classes.

For fifth and sixth flights, the levy would rise to €100 per flight, plus the additional surcharges. For seventh and eighth flights the levy would be €200, rising to €400 for every flight thereafter.

In a way, this is also a kind of wealth tax. Five per cent of households earning over €100,000 take three or more return flights a year versus just 5 per cent of households earning less than €20,000.

A portion of these funds, according to senior researcher at NEF Sebastian Mang, should be ringfenced for the EU’s contribution to lower and middle-income countries dealing with the sharp end of the climate crisis.

Source: https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/11/18/billionaires-frequent-flyers-oil-and-gas-who-could-fund-cop29s-1tn-finance-target