Call for tax on fossil fuel firms to help disaster-hit countries
FOSSIL fuel companies should be taxed to pay climate compensation to disaster-hit poor countries, the head of a group of small island nations has said.
Funds for so-called loss and damage compensation could be secured by a multinational agreement to tax the profits of oil and gas companies, said Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda. Mr Browne was speaking at the Cop27 international climate summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-sheikh, where he is acting as chair of the Alliance of Small Island States.
Small island nations face losing swathes of their land mass to sea level rise and economic damage from increasing storms as a result of climate change. They therefore argue they should be compensated by big polluters.
Mr Browne said the funds would not necessarily have to come from the national budgets of developed countries. “Fossil fuel firms, for example, could carry a portion by taxing the profits and we all know that they make extortionate profits,” he said. “What we would not suggest is any form of tax that will increase the cost and pass it on to consumers.”
The issue of climate compensation is dominating talks at the summit, after it was placed on the official agenda for the first time since the annual negotiations began.
Developed nations, including the UK, argue that they are already committing significant funds to poorer nations.
Mia Mottley, the Barbados prime minister, has called for a 10 per cent tax on oil companies to fund loss and damage compensation.
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, which was hit by severe floods earlier this year, told leaders at the climate summit yesterday that it could not take on the “gigantic task” of repairing the damage on its own.
“We are spending billions of rupees from our own meagre resources,” he said. “An estimate of damage of loss has exceeded $30billion [£26billion] and this all happened despite our very low carbon footprints and yet we became a victim of something with which we had nothing to do.”
Mr Browne also argued that India and China, as major emitters, should fund climate compensation despite not being historic polluters.
The US has recently called for Beijing to help foot the bill to repair developing nations hit by climate disasters.
While the US has contributed 20 per cent of historical emissions, China is second on 11 per cent, according to analysis by Carbon Brief. The UK accounts for 3 per cent of the global total.
Mr Browne also said four island nations planned to “explore the responsibility” of states for “injuries arising from their climate actions” and “breaches in the obligations”.
“As small countries, this is a new dynamic pathway of justice where the polluter pays,” he said.
Mr Browne said small island states “will fight unrelentingly this climate crisis, and this includes fighting in the international courts and under international law”.