United Nations
Reuters
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged rich countries to tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and use that money to help countries harmed by the climate crisis and people who are struggling with rising food and energy prices.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, on 20th September. PICTURE: Reuters/Amr Alfiky
DENMARK BECOMES FIRST TO OFFER “LOSS AND DAMAGE” CLIMATE FUNDING
Denmark on Tuesday pledged over $US13 million (100 million Danish crowns) to support developing nations that have experienced losses caused by climate disruptions, becoming the first country to offer “loss and damage” compensation to the most climate-vulnerable areas.
Flemming Moller Mortensen, Danish Minister for Development Aid, pictured on 3rd March, hoisting the Ukrainian flag to draw attention to the many who have fled Ukraine in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Copenhagen, Denmark. PICTURE: Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters.
Danish Development Minister Flemming Møller Mortensen made the pledge on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, saying the new climate funds would go to the Sahel region in north-western Africa and other fragile regions.
“I am very happy that we have agreed to increase support for climate-related losses and damages,” he said in a statement. “It is grossly unfair that the world’s poorest should suffer the most from the consequences of climate change, to which they have contributed the least.”
Some of the world’s most fragile areas, such as low-lying islands are pushing to create a funding facility for “loss and damage” – or consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to – to be established at UN climate negotiations in Egypt in November.
The United States, EU and other rich nations that represent the bulk of historical greenhouse gas emissions have opposed the creation of a separate fund to address loss and damage.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged rich countries to tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and use that money to compensate “countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.”
At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year, Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon announced a symbolic £1 million loss and damage investment as a way to encourage industrialized countries to follow suit.
Denmark offered the new loss and damage funding as part of its 2022 Finance Act and pledge to dedicate at least 60 per cent of its climate aid to help countries adapt to climate change.
– VALERIE VOLCOVICI/Reuters
Addressing world leaders at the 193-member UN General Assembly, the climate activist secretary-general stepped up his attacks on oil and gas companies, which have seen their profits explode by tens of billions of dollars this year.
“The fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns,” he said.
“Polluters must pay,” he added.
While Guterres again pushed developed countries to tax the fossil fuel windfall profits, this time he also used his platform to spell out where the money should be spent.
“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,” he told the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
Britain has passed a 25 per cent windfall tax on oil and gas producers in the North Sea, while the European Union plans to raise more than €140 billion to shield consumers from soaring energy prices by taxing windfall profits from oil companies and electric generators. US Democratic lawmakers have discussed a similar idea, though it faces long odds in a divided Congress.
While these plans focus on redirecting windfall profits to domestic consumers, the Secretary General advocated for a tax that would be directed to the world’s most climate vulnerable countries, which have been embracing the idea.
He also said multilateral development banks “must step up and deliver” and that helping poor countries adapt to worsening climate shocks “must make up half of all climate finance.”
Guterres added: “Major economies are their shareholders and must make it happen.”
The secretary general also broadened his criticism of oil and gas companies to enabling industries that he said helps keep carbon pollution growing, such as banks and other financial institutions that invest in those companies and the public relations and advertising industries.
“Just as they did for the tobacco industry decades before, lobbyists and spin doctors have spewed harmful misinformation,” Guterres said. “Fossil fuel interests need to spend less time averting a PR disaster – and more time averting a planetary one.”
– Additional reporting by VALERIE VOLCOVICI in Washington, DC.
