The United Nations secretary general has urged countries to impose windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies and divert the money to vulnerable nations who are suffering worsening losses from the climate crisis.
The UN boss said that “polluters must pay” for the escalating damage caused by heatwaves, floods, drought, and other climate impacts, and demanded that it was “high time to put fossil fuel producers, investors and enablers on notice”.
Guterres said that it was “high time to move beyond endless discussions” and deliver finance for vulnerable countries and for wealthy nations to double adaption funding by 2025, as they promised to do at UN climate talks in Scotland last year.
In a speech to the UN general assembly on Tuesday, the UN boss said, “Today, I am calling on all developed economies to tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies”. “Those funds should be redirected in two ways – to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices.”
His speech which opened with “Our world is in big trouble”, at the UN headquarters in New York, echoes call from activists, and the European Union, to tax major oil and gas firms currently enjoying record profits in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Recall that In July, Exxon announced it had made a record quarterly profit of $17.8bn, while Chevron unveiled its own three-month record profit, of $11.6bn. BP, meanwhile, made an $8.5bn profit in the same period.
“Let’s have no illusions. We are on rough seas. A winter of global discontent is on the horizon, a cost-of-living crisis is raging, trust is crumbling, inequalities are exploding, and our planet is burning,” Guterres told the assembly. “We have a duty to act and yet we are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction. The international community is not ready or willing to tackle the big dramatic challenges of our age.”
Under his proposal, revenue from the taxes is expected to flow to predominantly developing countries suffering “loss and damage” from global heating, to be invested in early warning systems, mopping up from disasters and other initiatives to build resilience.
The UN boss has previously accused governments of having an “addiction” to fossil fuels and has called new investments in oil, coal and gas “moral and economic madness”.
However, his speech on Tuesday was particularly pointed, following his recent visit to Pakistan, where floods from what he called “a monsoon on steroids” have submerged a third of the country and displaced millions of people.
“Our planet is burning,” Guterres said, calling on world leaders to end their “suicidal war against nature”. “The climate crisis is the defining issue of our time,” he added. “It must be the priority of every government and multilateral organization. And yet climate action is being put on the back burner – despite overwhelming public support around the world.”
He maintained that governments must stage an “intervention” to break their addiction to fossil fuels by targeting not only the extractive companies themselves but the entire infrastructure of businesses that support them.
Vulnerable countries will be looking to leverage the UN general assembly week to ask rich nations for a “climate-related and justice-based” global tax to pay for loss and damage.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
