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Climate change affects us all, but not equally. People living in low-income countries and communities — including the Pacific — are hit hardest by extreme climate disasters, deepening inequality and poverty.

Meanwhile, big fossil fuel companies make mega profits while being responsible for a whopping 70% of global emissions.

Whether it be people struggling to rebuild from floods in NSW and the Kimberly, or families in Vanuatu rebuilding after an extreme cyclone, we should not be paying the price for climate change. It’s time to make big polluting corporations pay. 

By demanding they pay fair taxes on their profits and pollution, we can divert funding away from fossil fuels and raise funds to support communities to recover from disasters, transition to renewable energy and adapt to a climate-impacted future.

At the United Nations COP29 climate change negotiations this November, we call on the Australian Government and other world leaders to agree to a strong new global goal for climate finance for low-income countries.

Will you join us and help create a Safe Climate and Equal Future?

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Join us in demanding climate justice by:

  • Urging Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen to make polluting corporations pay for their climate damages and end all new fossil fuel projects and subsidies
  • Ensuring impacted communities have the funds they need to recover from disasters, adapt to the changing climate and transition to renewable energy
  • Calling for an immediate end to all new fossil fuel projects and subsidies, and a plan to phase out all fossil fuels in Australia
Make polluters pay

Find out more

Who are the big polluters?

The biggest corporations and the wealthiest 1% hold the greatest responsibility for the climate crisis and must shoulder the greatest burden of the climate debt.  

Countries like Australia must hold corporations and the ultra-rich to account, and make them pay for the damages they have caused. 

The biggest polluters: 

  • Fossil fuel corporations are responsible for 70% of global industrial emissions and rake in billions in profits   
  • The world’s richest 1% have burned through twice as much carbon as the poorest half of humanity since the 1990s. Meanwhile billionaires are generating a million times more emissions than the average person through their investments. 
  • Wealthy countries are responsible for more than 90% of excess emissions, but everyday people are not to blame. People often have limited choices, as clean cars and energy are not readily available or affordable. Governments of wealthy countries must design systems to reign in climate pollution and tax their fossil fuel corporations and billionaires to pay for climate damages and the transition to renewable energy. 

How should governments make polluters pay?

There are many ways that governments can make the richest polluters pay. For example:  

  • Stop subsiding the use of fossil fuels: In 2023/24, Australia provided $14.5bn in fossil fuel subsides. It is madness to subsidise an industry that is killing our planet. We must shift these subsidies towards renewable energy and zero-emissions vehicles. 
  • Tax polluting corporations: Governments must tax the companies making the climate pollution, to disincentivise the industry and help fast track the transition. Oxfam and Action Aid analysis shows that a tax of 50–90% on the windfall profits of 722 mega-corporations globally could generate up to US$941bn.  
  • Tax the ‘polluter elite’:  Taxes on the income and wealth of the richest 1% globally could generate $9 trillion to invest in a green, equal future. Given billionaires have an average tax rate of less than 0.5%. It’s only fair they pay far more to the public good. 

 

Low-income communities must be protected from paying the costs of the climate crisis that is not of their making.    

Why now?

At COP29 this November, governments around the world will agree a new global climate finance goal to support developing countries to act on climate change. This is critical to ensure all countries have the resources to help limit warming to 1.5 degrees by transiting to renewable energy, and to adapt and recover from impacts already locked in.  

Countries must agree to a new global goal of over $1 trillion a year to turn the tide on the climate crisis and settle the climate debt that’s owed to hardest-hit countries.   

When like-minded people around the world join together, we can stand up and demand our governments pay their fair share towards tackling climate change. 

How should the money be spent?

Governments should use the money raised from rich polluters to compensate communities being hit hardest by the climate crisis, yet contributed the least to it, and to fund a just transition to renewable energy, both at home and around the world. 

  • Loss and damage: Last year, world leaders set up a new fund to compensate communities on the frontlines of the crisis for the losses and damages they’ve incurred from climate change.  
  • Adaptation: Urgent action is needed to fill the gap in climate adaptation funding, to help communities adapt to climate impacts.  
  • A Just Transition to renewable energy and a sustainable future: Our world is at a turning point – time is running out to drastically cut global emissions if we are to avoid the climate crisis spiralling out of control, with catastrophic consequences for all of us. It’s not too late, but a fast and fair transition from fossil fuels to clean energy depends on finding trillions to make it happen.  

Why are women are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis?

Women and girls experience the greatest impacts of climate change, which deepens existing gender inequalities and poses unique threats to their livelihoods, health, and safety.  

For example, often women collect the water and grow the crops for the family. In times of drought, they must walk further to collect water and food growing becomes tougher.  

In the wake of climate disasters, young girls can be robbed of an education as they have to leave school to take up care work.  

As climate change drives stress and conflict across the world, women and girls face increased vulnerabilities to all forms of gender-based violence.  

Thus, women need to be at the heart of climate solutions.

Polluting corporations must pay

Big coal and gas corporations are raking in super profits and getting off scot-free for destroying our climate with their pollution. Meanwhile its the communities enduring climate change disasters here in Australia and in our Asia Pacific region that are paying the price. Demand the government take action to stop big corporations polluting our climate and make them pay for the climate damage they have caused.

Sign the Petition