“It’s people who find themselves least liable for the crisis who’re currently bearing the brunt of climate change – facing poverty, hunger, and ever more scarce resources.
Producers
“At this week’s UN Climate Ambition Summit in Latest York world leaders urgently must step up with tangible and credible solutions to tackle the climate crisis. The choices outlined on this report offer the sort of daring solutions which are needed to boost finance fairly and reduce emissions, by targeting the richest polluters.
“Fossil fuel firms and the richest individuals who have done most to cause – and proceed to cause – irreversible damage to our planet could and ought to be those footing the bill. It is crucial that any measures to boost latest finance shield lower-income households from the costs.
“There may be money available to handle one in every of humanity’s biggest challenges – why on earth is the federal government not mobilising it? What we want from political leaders is the courage to ensure the largest and richest polluters are those that pay.”
Amid a cost-of-living crisis – with surging energy bills and high inflation putting particular pressure on lower-income households – oil and energy firms raked in record profits in 2022. Despite seeing a drop in earnings in probably the most recent quarterly announcements – profits were still within the billions.
The paper calls for the federal government to stop using public finance to support fossil fuel producers operating within the North Sea, and as an alternative redirect this finance, estimated to be around £3.35bn in 2022, towards a fossil fuel free future.
Finance
Real reductions in fossil fuel production are needed to quickly steer the world towards the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Nevertheless, Shell has announced it intends to grow its natural gas business, while BP has weakened commitments to scale back oil and gas output.
The paper calls for the federal government to scrap the climate-wrecking investment incentive linked to the present Energy Profits levy, which suggests producers can offset the tax they pay against investment in latest oil and gas projects.
The report calculates that a everlasting excess profits tax on fossil fuel firms last 12 months could have raised an extra revenue of between £2.2bn and £4.4bn. It highlights that placing taxes on the biggest polluters wouldn’t only generate additional finance, nevertheless it also needs to create incentives for them to scale back their emissions.
Excluding the wealth tax proceeds, if all 4 options detailed within the paper had been in place in 2022, they may have raised between £10.25bn and £12.62bn additional finance in only one 12 months. That’s greater than double the quantity the UK delivered in climate finance to developing countries within the six years leading as much as 2021.
Overdue
Walsh said: “From devastating floods in Pakistan to wildfires in Greece and rising sea levels within the Pacific, it’s now clear that some damage from climate change is unavoidable.
Despite the historic decision at COP27 last 12 months to determine a Loss and Damage fund, the UK government currently still doesn’t give any dedicated finance to handle this. As a substitute, it continues to encourage latest fossil fuel projects.
“Extra money can also be urgently needed within the UK to scale back emissions in a good way and move to a more sustainable economy which is able to concurrently improve people’s lives and reduce poverty and inequality. But funding is falling far behind the degrees required for this to occur.
“Faster and fairer motion to tackle the climate crisis, and to support those already hit hard in the UK and globally, can now not be delayed. This payment is already long overdue.”
This Creator
Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This text relies on a press release from Oxfam UK.
