Greenpeace: Taxing oil giants could boost UN Climate Fund by twentyfold

BIRMINGHAM, England

A modest tax on the world’s largest oil and gas companies could amplify the UN climate loss and damage fund by more than 2,000%, according to a Greenpeace International report released on Monday.

The analysis, developed in collaboration with Stamp Out Poverty, advocates for a Climate Damages Tax to hold polluters accountable for the costs of extreme weather events.

The proposed levy would start at $5 per ton of CO2 emitted by oil and gas production and increase annually. By 2030, the tax could raise $900 billion to help support vulnerable nations grappling with climate impacts.

Last year, the seven featured companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP, earned nearly $150 billion combined.

“While oil and gas giants keep raking in grotesque levels of profit from exploiting resources, the damages resulting from the industry’s operations are disproportionately borne by people who did not cause the crisis,” said David Hillman, director of the Stamp Out Poverty.

Greenpeace emphasized the moral urgency of the tax, describing it as a step toward climate justice.

The report estimated $64.6 billion in damages from severe weather in 2024. The proposed tax could alleviate such burdens while also funding the global transition to cleaner energy.

“Who should pay? This is fundamentally an issue of climate justice, and it is time to shift the financial burden for the climate crisis from its victims to the polluters behind it,” Abdoulaye Diallo, co-head of Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign, was quoted by Greenpeace.

The analysis suggests that taxing ExxonMobil’s 2023 extraction could cover half of the cost of Hurricane Beryl, whereas taxing Shell’s 2023 extraction could cover much of Typhoon Carina’s damages.