Archived press release

Tighten screws on banks and world's richest to raise cash to fight climate change

1 December 2010

Taxing reckless speculators, a crackdown on tax dodging by the rich and big business and other alternatives to carbon trading could generate at least four times the $100 billion per year pledged by rich countries in Copenhagen to tackle climate change, according to a new report launched by Friends of the Earth today [Wednesday 1 December 2010].
 
The report shows that at least $420 billion per year could be generated using a range of financial alternatives to carbon trading to provide money for developing countries to tackle climate change.
 
Friends of the Earth also warns that relying on carbon trading to provide this money and to cut emissions risks a double whammy of climate and financial crisis - and that fairer and more effective solutions for cutting emissions are available now.
 
'Clearing the air' - launched in Cancun, Mexico, during the latest round of UN climate negotiations - suggests that the money could be generated by a new Financial Transaction Tax, tackling tax evasion by big business and wealthy individuals, redirecting fossil fuel subsidies, new rights for governments to draw money from the IMF and new, well-targeted carbon taxes.
 
The proposals in the report have been tailored to avoid affecting ordinary people the UK and other rich countries.
 
It includes a blueprint for how best to cut greenhouse gas emissions worldwide - including a global feed-in tariff programme to guarantee prices for energy generated using small-scale renewable technology, an expansion of small-scale agriculture, and tackling deforestation in a way that protects the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
 
Commenting on the proposals, Friends of the Earth's international climate campaigner and the author of the report, Sarah-Jayne Clifton, said:
 
"Fair and abundant sources of money to tackle climate change are available right now - even in the midst of the worst global recession for years.

"A tax on international financial transactions, cracking down on tax evasion, and redirecting fossil fuel subsidies could help to generate hundreds of billions of dollars a year - and provide money for health and education as well as for tackling climate change.
 
"At the UN climate talks in Cancun, rich countries must commit to providing more money to developing countries from these sources. They must do it now - the money is there."
 
ENDS
 
Notes to Editors:
 
1. A summary of the report can be found at  http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/clearing_air_summ.pdf

 2.    Video content of Sarah-Jayne Clifton, author of the report, is available to embed with online news stories. Please contact the Friends of the Earth press office for the clip.
 
 3. To speak to Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Friends of the Earth climate campaigner and the author of the report, please contact Henry Rummins on + 44 7912 406 462.
 
4. The trade in carbon permits and credits, mainly based in Europe, was worth $126 billion in 2008 and is predicted to balloon to $3.1 trillion by 2020 if a global carbon market takes off.
 
5.  Previous Friends of the Earth reports have found that existing carbon trading schemes are not delivering the emissions cuts  needed, and relying on this mechanism to reduce emissions globally  could have devastating impacts on the future of the planet and on the lives of millions of the world's poorest people.
 
6.    At the talks in Cancun, Friends of the Earth is calling for rich countries to cut their emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020, without resorting to carbon offsetting, and for them to commit to this under a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol - the internationally agreed mechanism for legally-binding emissions reduction targets.
 
Friends of the Earth is also calling for sufficient money to be made available for developing countries to grow cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change already causing damage to their people's livelihoods and families. The green campaigning charity is calling for this money to come from public sources, not a global expansion of carbon markets, and to be governed and distributed by the UN through a new Global Climate Fund. Friends of the Earth believes the World Bank should play no part in providing, managing or distributing this money because it is one of the largest lenders for fossil fuel projects in the world. Finally, the green campaigning charity is also calling on Governments to agree an approach to protecting forests which works with, rather than against, the interests of those which rely on them, and not to agree measures which would simply mean they end up in the hands of the highest bidder.

7.    Friends of the Earth is supporting the campaign for a tax on financial transactions - a Robin Hood Tax - to provide finance for developing countries to develop cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change. For further information visit www.robinhoodtax.org.uk   

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust