Conference in Brazil sets out six global tax actions to deliver climate and economic justice
CAMPINAS, BRAZIL – 15 October 2025
At the A Climate for Change: Towards Just Taxation for Climate Finance conference held on 13–14 October 2025 at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil, economists, feminist organisers, union leaders, social movements, and tax justice advocates called on governments to make just taxation the foundation of climate finance.
The convening organisations were the Instituto de Economia, UNICAMP; Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (INESC); Observatório Brasileiro do Sistema Tributário; Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe (RJFALC); Transforma; and the Tax Justice Network.
Held just weeks before COP30 in Brazil and the UN tax convention negotiations in Nairobi, the conference urged governments to move beyond symbolic pledges and take bold fiscal action to reprogramme an economy that has pushed the planet to the brink of ecological collapse. Participants stressed that the resources for a just transition already exist but remain hidden offshore, drained by debt, and trapped behind unjust tax rules that strip countries of their tax sovereignty. Ensuring that citizens, not corporations, shape how wealth is generated and distributed was identified as central to reclaiming that sovereignty.
Six actions to reclaim tax sovereignty and fund a just transition
The conference concluded with six key demands for governments:
- Abolish fossil fuel subsidies and make polluters pay.
Governments must end fossil-fuel tax breaks—worth US$7 trillion a year, including US$1.3 trillion in direct fiscal support—and redirect funds to clean, resilient economies. - Make multinationals and the superrich pay their true cost.
Tax abuse by multinationals and the superrich drains US$500 billion annually. Effective global minimum corporate tax rates and wealth taxes can help finance the transition at home and abroad. - Establish a UN tax convention that integrates climate justice.
A fair global tax system must give greater decision-making power to Global South countries and tax profits where activity and emissions occur. The convention should align international tax cooperation with global climate goals, phase out fossil fuel subsidies through tax policy, and anchor the Paris Agreement within global tax governance. - Democratise fiscal power and invest in public infrastructure.
Governments must replace austerity with sustained public investment in health, education, care, energy, water, and transport. Fiscal systems should address racial and gender inequalities and ensure that budgeting is transparent, participatory, and aligned with social and climate goals. - Use tax systems to phase out fossil fuels and fund alternatives.
Governments should adopt coordinated measures such as a global surcharge on fossil fuel profits and ensure a fair allocation of taxing rights between countries to promote equitable and sustainable economic alternatives. - Integrate tax, debt, and climate policies into a coherent global framework.
Governments must link tax justice, debt relief, and climate finance through a permanent UN Financing for Development framework. Loans should be replaced with grants, and fiscal, trade, and climate policies must reinforce rather than undermine one another.
Sergio Chaparro, International Policy and Advocacy Lead, at the Tax Justice Network, said:
“From Gaza to the Amazon, lives are treated as expendable in a system built on sacrifice. Not everything that’s green shines. False solutions sustain colonial power. We must mobilise political will and move resources through just taxation to fund survival, not destruction.”
Anne Wanyagathi, Research Consultant on Tax at the South Centre, said:
“Oil and gas multinationals shift nearly a third of their profits to low tax jurisdictions, draining billions from developing countries—money that should be funding climate adaptation, health, and education. A UN tax convention can help restore taxing rights to developing countries and build a global tax system capable of delivering climate justice.”
Nathalie Beghin, Member of the INESC Management Board, said:
“The Climate for Change conference brought together a vibrant and diverse mix of organizations and researchers from across the globe. This rich diversity fueled innovative and compelling proposals to advance the critical connection between tax justice and climate justice, building momentum ahead of COP30.”
Zorka Milin, Policy Director at the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, said:
“The fossil fuel industry is still being rewarded for driving the climate crisis. Ending fossil fuel tax subsidies and strengthening transparency through public country by country reporting are essential to align taxation with climate goals and the public interest.”
Liz Nelson, Director of Advocacy and Research at the Tax Justice Network, said:
“Our fiscal systems, and the failures of international tax rules that underpin them, are accelerating the destruction of our planet. The negotiation of the UN tax convention provides the best, and perhaps the final opportunity to fix the international rules so that they work for all of us – including future generations. We must demand from each of our governments that they set out publicly the positions they are taking into the negotiations, in order to make good on their commitments that the convention delivers a fair allocation of taxing rights among countries, and an international system that supports sustainable development rather than undermining it.”
Speakers underscored that the fight for climate justice is inseparable from the fight for tax justice. They called on governments and multilateral institutions to align fiscal, debt, and climate policies so that wealth is taxed where it is created and directed to finance care, resilience, and reparation.
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