The tax justice and climate justice movements are natural allies, targeting shared roots of inequality upheld by a minority at the expense of everyone else.
The Tax Justice Network recently began a series of works aimed at clarifying and strengthening the links between the tax justice and climate justice movements. This brief builds on the framework established in our 2023 position paper by focusing on how fair corporate tax policy – a cornerstone of tax justice, intersects with the polluter pays principle – a cornerstone of climate justice.
Fair corporate tax policies uphold the polluter pays principle, while harmful policies negate it. This brief focus on how tax incentives in the shipping and extractive sectors contradict this principle, as government subsidies for these industries contribute significantly to environmental degradation.