Spain will promote the debate on the creation of a climate tax for the mega-rich taking advantage of its presidency of the EU

Teresa Ribera at the meeting of the European Ministers for Energy and Ecological Transition on September 30 in Brussels. JOHN THYS (AFP)

The fourth vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, intends to promote the debate in Europe on the creation of some type of climatic tax for great fortunes, in line with what is proposed by a study prepared by the World Inequality Laboratory , a project led by French economists Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty.

This organization has published a monographic study on inequality and the climate crisis and among the most innovative recommendations is the creation of an international tax on the wealth of the richest (they propose taxing between 1.5% and 3% those who own more than 100 million dollars, about 92 million euros at the current exchange rate).

According to his calculations, the tax would be applied to just over 65,000 people and,

In the best of cases —in which all the countries put it into operation—, 295,000 million dollars would be raised, which would serve to help those with the fewest resources to face the consequences of global warming.

"It is an interesting and innovative idea, in line with the most groundbreaking proposals, but it will be necessary to think about how to solve the difficulties for its application," say sources from the department directed by Ribera.

At the last climate summit, held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh, the richest countries pledged to create a fund for losses and damages caused by global warming.

In addition, those same nations promised more than a decade ago to financially help the poorest countries adapt to climate change for which they are least responsible.

Both in one case and in the other, the problem is where to get the enormous amount of resources that are needed.

For his part, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has proposed taxing the extraordinary profits of energy companies, the sector that is the main emitter of greenhouse gases that overheat the planet.

It is in this context that the World Inequality Laboratory launches its climate tax proposal.

The authors are aware that "a global agreement on a tax on extreme wealth to finance climate change adaptation and mitigation is unlikely to be reached in the near future."

But they consider that "a measure of this type can be initiated by a group of countries without the need for consensus" at the UN climate summits.

“For example, if the United States and European countries implemented such a tax, they would collect around 175,000 million each year”: 121,000 in the US and 56,000 in Europe.

This is a significant amount that "could be fully or partially redistributed towards a global climate fund, at no cost to 99.99% of the population of these countries,"

points out the report prepared by this group of French economists.

"Given the current extreme levels of wealth concentration in the world, even modest tax rates on the greatest wealth can generate substantial tax revenue," the authors add.

“Solid and conclusive” study

Ecological Transition sources affirm that "the vice president will analyze this proposal with great interest, especially considering that Spain will preside over the European Union during the celebration of COP28", the next UN climate summit that will take place in end of the year in Dubai.

“The study is solid and conclusive: there is a direct relationship between individual wealth and per capita emissions”, affirm the same sources.

The report proposing the creation of the tax for the super-rich starts from the premise of the existence of inequality in the causes and consequences of climate change.

The authors of the study state: “Climate impacts are not evenly distributed around the world: on average, low- and middle-income countries suffer greater impacts than their wealthier counterparts.

At the same time, the climate crisis is also marked by significant inequalities within countries.

If you go to the causes, you also find a tremendous imbalance.

“All individuals contribute to emissions, but not in the same way,” the study notes.

"The world's top 10% emitters of carbon dioxide generate nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions" on the planet,

Ribera, who has dedicated a very important part of his professional career to climate change policies, knows the people in charge of the World Inequality Laboratory well.

Chancel, who is the main author of the report in which the green tax for the richest is proposed, was Ribera's partner when the vice president directed the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDR) in Paris, between 2014 and 2018. In At that time, this economist was already investigating the relationship between income and greenhouse gas emissions.

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