Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is campaigning for a small international tax on oil and gas export earnings. Kenyan President William Ruto is calling for a more ambitious reform package, including a tax on international oil trade. (Unlike Brown, he is speaking on behalf of a group of countries in line with the common position negotiated at the African Climate Summit.) Prime Minister of Barbados and a key voice in the new fiscal debate Mia Mottley is similarly seeking to form a new company. Regarding climate taxes in particular, he emphasizes that “oil and gas companies are not the only appropriate targets for such taxes.”
What would happen if we started taxing the disproportionately wealthy and their massive emissions? We have a pretty good understanding of how this class and its emissions are distributed. According to the World Inequality Lab, about 46% of the world's 10% emissions come from North America, about 16% from Europe, and about 12% from China. If we focus on the global 1 percent, the numbers are even more skewed: 57 percent in North America, 15 percent in Europe, and 6 percent in China. Obviously, 1% of the world still tends to live in the Global North, which is good to know, but the rest of the 10% of the world, regardless of where they live, should not be forgotten. not.
The protesters are demanding a tax on the wealthy, and I couldn't agree more. The best approach is multi-layered. In fact, a proper climate finance framework would require not just a progressive emissions tax, but a straight wealth tax and all sorts of innovative solutions, from financial transaction taxes to new kinds of international shadow currencies. This will also include financial products. (“Special Drawing Rights”), as well as fundamental energy subsidy reform (according to the International Monetary Fund, fossil energy currently receives about $7 trillion a year in direct and indirect subsidies), Large-scale debt relief for countries, an international fair share assessment process to close the gap and ensure the overall package is balanced and fair.
