UN Tax Talks Could Push Polluters and Billionaires to Pay for Harm to Climate and Nature

New global tax rules that could help fund climate action, protect nature, and reduce inequality are being negotiated at the historic UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UNFCITC), which kicks off a 2-week round of negotiations in New York today.

Commenting on what’s at stake, the Greenpeace International delegation said the UN process could reform global tax rules so that the richest individuals and multinational corporations like oil and gas companies are forced to pay their fair share for the pollution they cause. Practices like tax dodging and profit shifting are depriving countries of vital resources needed for development and climate goals.[1]

Fred Njehu, Global Political Lead for Greenpeace International’s Fair Share campaign, said: “We’re at a turning point in history. Billionaires and corporations must finally pay their fair share of tax to fund climate action, protect nature, and invest in the wellbeing of people and the planet. World leaders must listen to what the people want and deliver a fair tax system that works for everyone, not just the powerful few.”

Rebecca Newsom, Global Political Lead for Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling, Start Paying campaign, said: “Climate resilience must not depend on voluntary donations, or on market-rate loans that exacerbate the debt crisis already facing many countries. The costs of rebuilding from devastating floods and storms, and adapting to increasingly brutal heat waves should be financed by taxing the fossil fuel polluters who caused the problem in the first place. The UN Tax Convention provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to properly tax the global profits of multinational oil, gas and coal corporations and raise vital revenues to fill the financing gap for communities facing disasters on the frontlines of the climate crisis – this is what we’re here to demand.”

European countries make up the bulk of OECD, the club of rich countries who currently set global tax rules in an exclusive and unrepresentative process. Commenting on the role of Europe in negotiations to change this system, Clara Thompson, climate and tax justice lead, Greenpeace International, said: “You can’t tackle the climate crisis while the super-rich stash billions in tax havens. The UN Tax Convention is a historic chance to rewrite the global rules and to make polluters and profiteers finally pay their fair share. In their written submission, Germany has recognised the need to explore taxing high-net-worth individuals as part of the commitment to sustainable development. Now is the time to turn that recognition into action. Europe must step up and help build a fairer global tax system that puts people and the planet first.”

Ahead of negotiations in New York, Greenpeace organisations have written to ministers in key countries taking part in this process, calling for their leadership and speaking out in favour of three key demands. [2] The demands call for:

• progressive environmental taxation to ensure the biggest polluters pay their fair share;
• a surtax on the profits of fossil fuel and other high polluting corporations, with revenue channeled towards global climate and development financing obligations;
• higher tax rates for billionaires and super-polluters in line with their ecological debt, with funds raised going to support climate action and sustainable development.

Greenpeace International is also calling for governments to make fossil fuel corporations and the super-rich pay their fair share for the damages they cause through the Polluters Pay Pact and the global movement to #TaxTheSuperRich.[2][3]

ENDS

Notes:

[1] New global tax rules in an UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation are being negotiated, from now until 2027. It aims to take control of global tax rules from the rich OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries to place it in the hands of the 193 member states of the United Nations.

[2] Greenpeace’s detailed demands for negotiators are:

• Adding a sub-commitment under the overall tax and sustainable development commitment on progressive environmental taxation in line with the Polluter Pays Principle, covering both polluting corporations and high-net-worth individuals.
• Introducing a specific mechanism under the Convention in the form of a polluter pays surtax on the global profits of multinational oil, gas and coal companies and multinational companies from other polluting industries, with revenues channelled towards global climate and sustainable development financing obligations under existing UN agreements and mechanisms.
• Committing to the effective taxation of high-net worth individuals – with progressively higher rates for billionaires and super-polluters – recognising their climate accountability and ecological debt, with revenues channelled towards climate action and sustainable development.

[3] The Polluters Pay Pact is a global alliance of more than 235,000 people on the frontlines of climate disasters, concerned citizens, first responders like firefighters, humanitarian groups and political leaders.

[4] The #TaxTheSuperRich global movement is powered by a diverse network of organisations from across the globe, united by a shared commitment: to create a fairer and greener world by taxing the super rich.