The tax justice and climate justice movements are both committed to overcoming the deeply entrenched dynamics of the unequal economic and ecological relationship between low and middle income countries on the one hand, and high income countries on the other, as well as horizontal forms of inequality. Yet still, both movements tend to operate in isolation from each other.
Tax justice can be a powerful tool for climate justice advocates to reprogramme economies to be compatible with and conducive to climate justice policies.
This position paper presents a range of tax policies to meet some of the challenges facing the climate justice movement, such as the climate finance gap, ongoing imbalances between those responsible for the climate crisis and those most affected, the legacies of historic climate injustice, political inertia, and a lack of global cooperation. The solutions are based on the five principles of tax justice – revenue, redistribution, repricing, representation and reparation. The paper uses the Global Green New Deal as a policy example.