The UN Secretary-General called on Tuesday, at the opening of the Annual General Assembly, for rich countries to tax the profits of the fossil fuel sector to redistribute them to countries suffering from the impacts of climate change and to populations affected by inflation.
“Today, I call on all developed economies to tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies” and to “redirect (these taxes) in two ways: to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis , and populations struggling with rising food and energy prices,” said António Guterres.
Fossil fuel companies “feasting” on war-inflated profits in Ukraine “should spend less time advertising to avert a communications disaster, and more time averting a planetary disaster.”
The Secretary General had already denounced a few weeks ago the “greed” of the big oil and gas companies, which are making “scandalous” profits on “the backs of the poorest” thanks to the energy crisis caused by this war, calling on governments to tax them. But he did not then mention the possibility of redistributing part of these taxes to the countries on the front line facing the impacts of global warming, for which coal, oil and gas are primarily responsible.
This question of “loss and damage” already caused by the multiplication of extreme weather events has become a crucial point in climate negotiations and should be a major issue at the UN COP27 climate conference in Egypt in November. Adding to the questions of ambition in the reduction of emissions to hope to respect the Paris Agreement, adaptation to impacts and financing.
At COP26, in Glasgow at the end of 2021, despite pressure from developing countries advocating for specific financing of this loss and damage, rich countries had blocked this request, and the meeting had simply given birth to the launch of a “dialogue” until 2024. A few days ago, the group of least developed countries, meeting in Dakar, put this claim back on the table, calling for the establishment of a “funding mechanism” to deal with the damage caused by warming.
“It is high time to move beyond these endless discussions,” denounced António Guterres on Tuesday. “Vulnerable countries need action that makes sense. Denouncing a world “addicted” to fossil fuels, he also called for more investment in renewable energies.
“We have a date with a climate catastrophe”, he warned, calling for an end to “our suicidal war against nature”.