Are you an organisation looking to tackle climate injustice?

• Wish to express our deep concern over the absence of financial assistance for communities to rebuild their lives after enduring catastrophic loss and damage from climate-driven events such as super-storms, floods, heatwaves, forest fires and droughts, experiencing greater intensity and frequency of extreme weather due to the burning of fossil fuels. 

• Note that the fossil fuel industry has known for decades that what they produced and marketed would result in the heating of the planet; that they have made trillions in profits while funding climate denial and misinformation to prevent Governments shifting our economies away from fossil fuel powered systems; and that they have borne no responsibility or financial liability for  the damage their products have caused. 

• Acknowledge that the UK, and other rich countries that built their wealth from the use of fossil fuels, have a responsibility to make the largest contribution to tackling the drivers  and impacts of climate breakdown. 

• Observe that to halt global heating we must stop using fossil fuels; and contend that their phase out will be hastened by much greater taxation of fossil fuel extraction to make production of carbon-based power more expensive, helping to incentivise a switch to a clean and  renewable energy system. 

• Recall the precedent of proven international solidarity facilities, such as the Global Fund for Aids, TB and Malaria, which have a long history of life-saving support for severely impacted  populations. 

• Recognise the Polluter Pays Principle - the principle that the polluter must be held liable for  the damage that they cause - is widely acknowledged and written into international law, with such precedents as the IOPC Funds that pay compensation to those who have suffered  damage from oil pollution. 

Therefore, urge the UK Government to introduce at the earliest possible time, a Climate  Damages Tax on the fossil fuel industry by means of a charge on the extraction of each tonne  of coal, barrel of oil and cubic litre of gas, set at a high enough rate to accelerate the switch to  renewable energy and increasing each year, with the revenues divided between: 

A) An International Facility for Loss and Damage1 to compensate countries and  communities severely impacted by these extreme weather events caused by higher  global temperatures resulting from fossil fuel pollution, while ensuring that this finance is  additional, not in place of, current Official Development Assistance 

B) Scaling up a just transition driven by investment in the UK economy to deliver green  jobs, energy and transport, protecting and creating employment through the provision of  training and designed to prevent disadvantage to low-income households. 

• Call on the UK Government to use its regulatory powers to ensure that this greater  taxation is paid for from fossil fuel industry profits and is not passed on to consumers. 

• Further, strongly urge the UK Government to immediately end all subsidies, including tax  reliefs, on the production of fossil fuels - these are a shameful misuse of public funds,  perpetuating the use of oil and gas and distorting the price of energy to favour the continuation  of carbon-based power; and to instead, without delay, redirect the billions of pounds each year  to incentivise the switch to a renewable, clean and healthier energy system.