"Impose climate tax on fossil fuel giants, media groups urge", 15 November 2022

Dozens of media organisations from around the world have published a joint editorial article calling for a windfall tax on the biggest fossil fuel companies.

The funds raised should be redistributed to poorer, vulnerable countries, the editorial says, as they are suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis despite having done the least to cause it.

“Humanity has to end its addiction to fossil fuels,” the joint editorial, which was coordinated by the Guardian, says. “Rich countries account for just one in eight people in the world today but are responsible for half of greenhouse gases. These nations have a clear moral responsibility to help.”...

“Climate change is a global problem that requires cooperation between all nations,” the editorial says. However, without adequate funding, there is no trust between the global north and south, according to Cop27 observers. “This is no time for apathy or complacency; the urgency of the moment is upon us,” the article states.

A series of reports in the run-up to Cop27 have laid bare how close the planet is to irreversible climate catastrophe, with “no credible pathway [of carbon cuts] to 1.5C in place”, the internationally agreed temperature limit to contain global heating...

The editorial, published by more than 30 media organisations, notes the world’s growing economic crisis but says: “During the pandemic, central banks across the world lubricated states’ expenditure by buying up their own governments’ bonds. The trillions of dollars needed to deal with the ecological emergency demands such radical thinking returns.”

The organisations that published the joint editorial come from almost every continent, including the Hindu in India and Tempo in Indonesia, the Mail & Guardian in South Africa and Haaretz in Israel, Rolling Stone in the US and El Espectador in Colombia, and La Repubblica in Italy and Libération in France...