PRESS RELEASE: 85% support “ring-fencing” of oil & gas company taxes to increase government spending on climate damages, global survey finds

Sevilla, Spain, 3 July 2025

Ring-fencing levies on polluting corporations to support investment on climate resilience is facing opposition from finance ministries worldwide. Nevertheless, earmarking taxes to finance climate and other development needs is both possible and popular, according to a report published today by Stamp Out Poverty in a side-event at the 4th UN Financing for Development conference (FfD4). The report launch was accompanied by new public opinion data, commissioned by Greenpeace International.[1]

There is an alarming gap between funds available and the investment needed to shift away from oil, gas and coal to clean energy, adapt to climate change, and pay for climate-related loss and damage.[2] To generate critical public revenues for climate action and sustainable development, there is growing momentum for introducing taxes and levies on super-rich individuals and polluting industries, particularly oil and gas corporations.

Ring-fencing, earmarking or hypothecation refers to the allocation of a specific source of revenue to a predetermined purpose. Analysis from Stamp Out Poverty shows how ring-fencing of public finance from tax revenues exists today in numerous countries, and across multiple economic sectors across the world, including sovereign wealth funds, health, social- and environmental protection. It further shows how digitalisation and automation of financial systems and transfers in recent years have removed previously existing technical barriers.

Avinash Persaud, emeritus professor of Gresham College, said: “Hypothecation is effective and raises substantial revenues. It may be desired because it can ring-fence the funds against the temptation to divert them to the latest hot issue.”

A new global survey, commissioned by Greenpeace International and Oxfam International, finds 85% of respondents support the idea of governments spending more to support the victims of storms, wildfires, droughts and floods, using money raised by taxes on oil, coal and gas corporations and other polluters. Ring-fencing solidarity levies is, therefore, not only feasible and prevalent, but also a strong opportunity for governments to deliver their commitments in a way that would be popular to voters.

The FfD4 event began with testimonies from two people who live in climate-affected countries, highlighting the urgent need to raise public funds for climate action and the moral imperative of holding polluters accountable.

Climate change is an existential threat to Tuvalu, a Pacific Island State nation, which is experiencing rising sea levels as an existential threat. Last year, at the International Court of Justice, Tuvalu asserted that international law mandates states to limit global warming to 1.5C. In the FfD4 conference, Prime Minister Hon. Feleti Teo called for the fair taxation of billionaires’ wealth and multinational profits under a UN Tax Convention.[3]

H.E. Dr. Tapuga Falefou, Tuvalu’s Permanent Representative to the UN and Ambassador Extraordinary and Pleinpotentiary, said: “In Tuvalu, our shorelines are disappearing, our crops are dying from saltwater intrusion, and our people are already facing the trauma of displacement. Yet the fossil fuel industry and the super-rich continue to increase their wealth while we fight to keep our heads above water—literally. If the global tax system were reformed to ensure that those who have gained from pollution are contributing their fair share to address its consequences, we could unlock billions to support those who are the least responsible.”

Since floods claimed 224 lives in October 2024 in the western parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Greenpeace Spain has been supporting people in affected areas and highlighting how the links to fossil fuel emissions which are heating the climate.[4]

Óscar Escobar, survivor of the 2024 Valencia floods and a member of the ‘Civic Assembly for Climate’ Association, said: “What happened on October 29th 2024 was terrifying. I did not lose anyone personally, but we suffered tremendous material loss, and we are still psychologically traumatized. I have joined the Polluters Pay Pact to tell our government: tax the oil and gas industry. Make them pay for what they do to us all!”

Last month, a coalition of 60 civil society organisations, including Greenpeace International and Stamp Out Poverty, launched the Polluters Pay Pact, a global alliance of communities on the frontlines of climate disasters. The Pact demands that – instead of piling the costs on ordinary people – governments make oil, gas and coal corporations pay their fair share for the damages they cause, through the introduction of new taxes and fines.

The Pact is backed by over 170,00 people, including firefighters and other first responders, trade unions and worker groups, and mayors from countries including Australia, Brazil, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and South Africa, the US, and plaintiffs in landmark climate cases from Pacific island states to Switzerland.

Photos and videos:

Notes:

  1. To read the full analysis, visit: Stamp Out Poverty.The survey was conducted by first-party data company Dynata in May-June, 2025, in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Kenya, Italy, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the US, with approximately 1200 respondents in each country and a theoretical margin of error of approximately 2.83%. Together, these countries represent close to half the world’s population. Statistics available here.
  2. See Emissions Gap Report 2024; Adaptation Gap Report 2024 – UN Environment Programme; The Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance estimates that by 2030, low-income countries could require up to US$ 400 billion annually for Loss and Damage.
  3. Group Statement – Pacific Small Island Developing States.
  4. Extreme downpours are increasing in southeastern Spain as fossil fuel emissions heat the climate – World Weather Attribution.

Contacts:

G20 communique: Important step towards derisking renewable investment for developing countries

PRESS RELEASE

Scaling up renewable energy in developing countries is mission-critical for addressing the climate emergency and providing clean, safe energy for hundreds of millions who need it.

A major block has been the mispricing of the cost of capital making prospective renewable projects unprofitable. Stamp Out Poverty has been working with leading finance economists, such as Avinash Persaud, supporting the development of innovative financing structures to tackle this. National government platforms of developing countries, supported by multilateral development banks and others can create a clear, transparent mechanism for attracting international private investment, hedging the cost of capital risks, and ensuring investment benefits the projects and communities most in need.

In a landmark move for the initiative, the G20 has recognised the importance of this approach and agreed that ‘relevant institutions should work to ensure that risks are well captured, including by exploring to increase the transparency of credit ratings and country risk assessments.’ It further supported ‘the voluntary building-up of country platforms as one of the possible instruments to boost sustainable finance in emerging markets and developing economies. Platforms that are country-led, flexible, and well adapted to national circumstances work as efficient instruments to mobilize both public and private capital to finance projects and programs in developing countries, helping match mitigation, adaptation, and resilience building challenges with concrete flows of resources for just transitions.

Avinash Persaud, international finance expert and an architect of the Bridgetown Initiative said:
“Reducing the cost of capital for developing countries has been recognised as a priority at the G20 Summit to address the climate crisis on a global scale. By unblocking climate finance and making it more affordable for these nations, we empower them to supercharge renewable energy investments and build resilience—an urgent necessity in today’s climate landscape.

The G20 has a key role to play in supporting the streamlining of climate funds, managing foreign exchange risk, and enhancing transparency. These are critical steps not only for effective climate action but also for tackling global hunger and environmental degradation.”

David Hillman, Director of Stamp Out Poverty, said:
“This welcome development sets the scene for a step change in the scale of investment in tried and tested renewable energy production, such as wind and solar, in developing countries. After encouraging and supporting this area of work over the last two years, we are delighted to see it being supported at the G20 Summit.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The G20 Communique:

45. Underlining the importance of progress towards making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development, we welcome the initiative taken by Brazil’s G20 Presidency to establish the Task Force on a Global Mobilization against Climate Change (TF-CLIMA), bringing together the Sherpa and Finance tracks, while helping further mainstream climate change into the global financial, economic and development agendas. Building on TF-CLIMA, we will cooperate and join efforts to identify and address structural barriers to foster private L capital flows for climate action, particularly for developing countries. We recognize that relevant institutions should work to ensure that risks are well captured, including by exploring to increase the transparency of credit ratings and country risk assessments.

46. We will accelerate the reform of the international financial architecture so that it can meet the urgent challenge of sustainable development, climate change and efforts to eradicate poverty. We support the voluntary building-up of country platforms as one of the possible instruments to boost sustainable finance in emerging markets and developing economies. Platforms that are country-led, flexible, and well adapted to national circumstances work as efficient instruments to mobilize both public and private capital to finance projects and programs in developing countries, helping match mitigation, adaptation, and resilience building challenges with concrete flows of resources for just transitions.

https://www.gov.br/planalto/pt-br/media/18-11-2024-declaracao-de-lideres-g20.pdf

2. Avinash Persaud is special advisor on climate change to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and was a key figure in the Loss and Damage Fund negotiations.

3. Stamp Out Poverty
Stamp Out Poverty is an NGO with a long record of policy development in innovative finance solutions bringing together leading economists and thinkers with civil society to develop and champion powerful, practical ideas to raise the money needed to end extreme poverty and fight climate change. Ideas that bring accountability to the industries behind these problems.

For further information and comment contact:
David Hillman, Director, Stamp Out Poverty: dhillman@stampoutpoverty.org

The Climate Damages Tax: a guide to what it is and how it works (2024)

There is a price for heating up the planet. Currently it is borne to a vast extent by the populations affected by ever-intensifying climate impacts. Although their products are the root cause of the crisis, to date, the fossil fuel producers have gotten away with not paying. The Climate Damages Tax (CDT) proposal, underpinned by the Polluter Pays principle, makes the case that it is high time for the producers to bear a substantial proportion of the costs for losses and damages that result from the burning of fossil fuels. The CDT is a fee on the extraction of each tonne of coal, barrel of oil, or cubic meter of gas. The report proposes that the substantial additional revenue raised is allocated in two ways. Firstly, to boost finance for the newly set up Loss & Damage Fund allowing richest, most polluting, countries to make their contributions without unfairly costing their citizens. Secondly, it will generate a significant domestic dividend that can be channelled to climate action nationally, helping to pay for the necessary support for workers and communities to transition away from fossil fuels, towards green energy and transport. The report sets out how the CDT would work and its considerable revenue potential.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Executive Summary – The Climate Damages Tax: A guide to what it is and how it works (2024)

REPORT: The Climate Damages Tax: A guide to what it is and how it works (2024)

CDT Data Tables

For the following data, all figures should be taken as indicative only, and are based on the following assumptions:

  1. the CDT is introduced in 2021 in every jurisdiction globally
  2. the rate is increased as described in the report: introduced at $5 per tonne of CO2e, then increasing by $5 per tonne of CO2e each year until 2030, when it will be reviewed with the expectation of increasing by $10 each year up to 2050.
  3. the fossil fuel phase out follows the average of pathways P1, P2 and P3 in the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C
  4. countries do not shift between income brackets or change their share of each fossil fuel usage globally over time

 

For the full methodology and sources, please see the report Appendix.

Potential CDT revenues globally by year

Year Just Transition revenues ($bn) Loss and Damage revenues ($bn) Total CDT revenues ($bn)
2021 141 69 210
2022 256 125 381
2023 349 171 520
2024 423 207 631
2025 481 236 717
2026 526 258 783
2027 559 274 833
2028 582 285 867
2029 597 292 889
2030 605 296 902
2031 663 325 988
2032 706 346 1,052
2033 738 361 1,099
2034 759 372 1,130
2035 771 378 1,149
2036 777 380 1,157
2037 776 380 1,157
2038 771 378 1,149
2039 762 373 1,135
2040 749 367 1,116
2041 734 359 1,093
2042 717 351 1,068
2043 698 342 1,040
2044 678 332 1,010
2045 658 322 980
2046 637 312 948
2047 615 301 916
2048 594 291 884
2049 572 280 853
2050 551 270 821

Potential CDT revenues across all countries in 2021

Country of fossil fuel extraction Just Transition revenues remitted to governments for domestic use ($m) Loss and Damage revenues contributed to solidarity fund by fossil fuel extractors due to extraction activity within country ($m) Total ($m)
US 12,789 12,789 25,578
Canada 3,034 3,034 6,068
Mexico 1,514 649 2,163
Total North America 17,337 16,472 33,809
Argentina 386 386 772
Bolivia 170 0 170
Brazil 1,732 742 2,474
Colombia 1,413 605 2,018
Ecuador 294 126 419
Peru 146 62 208
Trinidad & Tobago 200 200 401
Venezuela 1,381 592 1,973
Other S. & Cent. America 118 51 168
Total S. & Cent. America 5,839 2,765 8,604
Bulgaria 339 145 484
Czech Republic 316 316 632
Denmark 75 75 149
Germany 1,263 1,263 2,525
Greece 266 266 532
Hungary 56 56 112
Italy 57 57 114
Netherlands 182 182 364
Norway 1,266 1,266 2,533
Poland 913 913 1,826
Romania 362 155 517
Serbia 393 169 562
Spain 20 20 39
Turkey 982 421 1,403
United Kingdom 572 572 1,145
Other Europe 552 552 1,104
Total Europe 7,613 6,427 14,040
Azerbaijan 527 226 753
Kazakhstan 2,178 933 3,111
Russian Federation 14,180 6,077 20,258
Turkmenistan 560 240 800
Ukraine 674 0 674
Uzbekistan 624 0 624
Other C’wealth of Independent States 141 0 141
Total C’wealth of Independent States 18,884 7,476 26,360
Bahrain 75 75 150
Iran 3,971 1,702 5,673
Iraq 2,356 1,010 3,365
Kuwait 1,161 1,161 2,322
Oman 510 510 1,021
Qatar 1,461 1,461 2,922
Saudi Arabia 4,690 4,690 9,379
Syria 47 0 47
United Arab Emirates 1,599 1,599 3,197
Yemen 37 0 37
Other Middle East 178 76 255
Total Middle East 16,084 12,283 28,390
Algeria 1,322 566 1,888
Angola 1,205 0 1,205
Chad 80 0 80
Republic of Congo 216 0 216
Egypt 961 0 961
Equatorial Guinea 98 42 140
Gabon 103 44 147
Libya 500 214 715
Nigeria 1,872 0 1,872
South Africa 2,482 1,064 3,546
South Sudan 79 0 79
Sudan 62 0 62
Tunisia 36 0 36
Zimbabwe 41 0 41
Other Africa 487 209 696
Total Africa 9,544 2,139 11,683
Australia 4,056 4,056 8,111
Bangladesh 264 0 264
Brunei 100 100 200
China 37,678 16,148 53,825
India 10,943 0 10,943
Indonesia 7,838 0 7,838
Japan 10 10 20
Malaysia 877 376 1,253
Mongolia 696 0 696
Myanmar 179 0 179
New Zealand 21 21 41
Pakistan 401 0 401
South Korea 10 10 21
Thailand 602 258 860
Vietnam 866 0 866
Other Asia Pacific 970 416 1,385
Total Asia Pacific 65,510 21,393 86,903
Total World 140,811 68,956 209,790
High income 35,638 35,638 71,276
Upper middle income 77,741 33,318 111,059
Lower middle income 27,432 0 27,432
Low income 283 0 283

The SDGs need real solutions, not failed ideas

Instead of the same old failed ideas, we need real solutions to the SDGs funding gap more urgently than ever. Public services – whether in high or low income countries – are best funded through public money, which can be spent where need is greatest rather than chasing profit. These solutions include Global Solidarity Levies – alongside cracking down on huge global companies that dodge paying taxes in low income countries, and wiping out unpayable debts for the lowest income countries.

Yet over the last decade, politicians in high income countries have tried to fob us off with failed ideas. Their favourite is the so-called ‘Billions to Trillions’ approach, which lets high income country governments off the hook by relying on huge global companies to voluntarily fill the SDGs funding gap.

They claim that if these companies are offered profit guarantees, backed up by $100 billion from the aid budget, they will invest one trillion dollars into essential public services in low income countries. But this approach has been called ‘mathematical gymnastics’ – experts suggest this sort of private investment could only double the aid budget at best.

Click here to read our report: Billions to Trillions: A Reality Check

More and more evidence – from both high and low income countries – also shows that public services such as hospitals and roads do not generate big profits. Guarantees then leave governments on the hook for sky-high payments decades to come.

In Lesotho, annual payments for one hospital built through a ‘Public Private Partnership’ (PPP) ended up costing half the country’s entire health budget. In 2018, Chancellor Philip Hammond vowed not to sign another ‘Private Finance Initiative’ (PFI) deal for UK public services for this reason, and the French Court of Auditors recommended the strategy be abandoned in 2017.

And private funding also neglects the most vulnerable.

The ‘Billions to Trillions’ approach ignores the evidence that low income countries are often left worse off, wastes scarce aid money, and doesn’t reach those most in need. And every day spent talking about ‘Billions to Trillions’ is a day wasted, when real solutions to fill the SDGs funding gap are being ignored. It’s time for governments to get real, and force those who can best afford to pay a bit more, to do so.

Published 15/04/19   2:44 am

Billions to Trillions: A Reality Check

Our new report, Billions to Trillions: A Reality Check authored by Sony Kapoor of the think tank, RE-DEFINE, was launched during the 2019 UN Financing for Development Forum in New York.

The report outlines why the mobilisation potential of blending has been oversold through the Billions to Trillions agenda by a factor of ten, and how continued blending evangelism is unhelpful in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.

Read the report

The Climate Damages Tax: a guide to what it is and how it works (2019)

Our original Climate Damages Tax report was been launched during COP24 in Katowice, Poland.

The report outlines how a Climate Damages Tax on the fossil fuel industry – those overwhelmingly responsible for the climate problem – could raise approximately $300 billion a year in revenues for loss and damage to help the most vulnerable people deal with the worst impacts of climate change, and billions more for just transition to renewable energy, jobs and transport.

REPORT: The Climate Damages Tax: A guide to what it is and how it works

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Executive Summary – The Climate Damages Tax: A guide to what it is and how it works

OPED: It’s time for those who caused climate change to pay for it

Please click here for the full data estimating potential CDT revenues.

Climate Damages Tax video

It’s time to make the fossil fuel industry pay for the damage it has caused.

See this short film to find out more:

 

Published 16/05/17   3:47 pm

Labour Pledges to Introduce Robin Hood Tax

Labour have announced they will modernise the current Stamp Duty on shares to bring in an extra £26 billion over the course of the parliament.

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Published 12/09/12   9:16 am

The Banker

See Bill Nighy starring in our brilliant (even if we say so ourselves) launch film, seen by more than 1 million people. 831