“Where is the money?!” cried John Kerry, US Special Envoy for Climate on Finance Day. “We need vast amounts. Not millions here and there.”
ECO thinks this is a very important question. And drawing attention to the huge climate finance needs of developing countries, and the paltry millions in climate finance contributions (taken from previous pledges) we have seen so far at COP27, is equally valid.
Perhaps some parties have not been listening attentively to fellow negotiators or the leaders’ statements in the opening to COP27. If they had listened to AOSIS they would have heard the answer loud and clear.
From the outset of the COP we heard Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley call attention to the vast amounts of profits hoarded by the fossil fuel industry. And heard Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne say that fossil fuel companies should pay a “global carbon tax” on profits as a source of funding for loss and damage, and call for an end to fossil fuel subsidies. We have heard negotiators drawing attention to this burning issue.
The profits from the 3rd quarter of 2022 (July-September), which are the most recent reported, of six large international Oil & Gas companies are as follows: Saudi Aramco: US$42.4 billion, Exxon: $20 bn, Chevron: $11.2 bn, Total: $9.9 bn, Shell $9.5 bn, BP $8.2 bn. Many other of the big oil and gas companies, Gazprom, Petrobras, Eni, Equinor, Kuweit Oil, Sinopec, QatarGas, Rosneft, Petronas, India Oil to name a few, have not yet report their net profits for the 3rd quarter:
In addition to a tax on profits, another proposal is for a levy on the extraction of each tonne of coal, barrel of oil, or cubic litre of gas. According to an analysis from 2019, such a charge, sometimes called a “climate damages tax” could raise $300 bn per year by 2050. This could raise more money than a tax on profits and gets to the root cause of the climate crisis: the extraction of fossil fuels. Based on research by Carbon Tracker in 2021, oil and gas companies are planning to spend $1tn by 2030 on new fossil fuel projects that would take us beyond 1.5C warming.
As Prime Minister Gaston Browne put it; “Profligate producers of fossil fuels have benefited from extortionate profits at the expense of human civilization. While they are profiting, the planet is burning.”