Event description
“Just as the climate crisis and inequality are man-made, so too is the myth that we do not have the resources to address them.” Olivier de Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
Countries have systematically failed to meet even the modest US$100 billion per year climate finance pledge made by Global North countries at COP15 in 2009.
Yet estimates now suggest that the annual cost of addressing the climate crisis around the world may reach US$9 trillion by 2030. Every moment of inaction drives this figure higher. The chronic failure to mobilise and institutionalise adequate and fair climate finance is not simply a question of broken promises. It reflects political and economic power dynamics within an unjust global system.
New analysis from a Tax Justice Network report Reclaiming tax sovereignty to transform global climate finance published on 16 June 2025 highlights that the real issue in climate financing is not scarcity but weakened tax sovereignty: extreme wealth and undertaxed multinational profits are plentiful; what is missing is countries’ ability and willingness to tax them.
Applying a minimal wealth tax on the superrich and making multinational corporations pay the dodged taxes they owe can cover the majority of countries’ climate finance costs, and leave most with billions in tax revenue to spare towards public services.
This ground-breaking report offers a blueprint for a global climate finance pool funded through progressive reforms and makes a critical contribution to the fight for fair and sufficient climate finance by exposing false scarcity, laying bare the tax sovereignty gap, and showing the necessary scale is achievable.
Join us for this interactive webinar on 30 June where the authors will discuss key findings from this report and its implications for climate financing; as well as offering priority actions for civil society organisations and allies, climate and tax justice activists, and technical actions for governments.
This webinar aims to equip a broad coalition of allies with the technical knowledge of how progressive taxation can contribute significant resources towards the climate financing imperative, and is entirely within reach by mobilising these transformative policy reforms.
Speakers
Franziska Mager
Senior Researcher and Advocacy Lead (Climate & Inequalities)
The author of the report, Franziska leads the Tax Justice Network’s work on integrating tax and climate justice approaches in service of reducing inequalities.
Mario Cuenda Garcia
Research Fellow
Mario Cuenda García earned his PhD in Economic History from the London School of Economics in 2023 and specialises in empirical research, focusing on Country-by-Country Reporting data, profit shifting estimates and Illicit Financial Flows.