On June 22-23, France and other government leaders are holding a “Summit for a New Global Financial Pact” in Paris, with a goal to “build a new contract between the countries of the North and the South to address climate change and the global crisis.”
150+ economists and experts, including eco-union’s president Jérémie Fosse, have sent an open letter calling on Global North leaders to put real global financial system transformation on the Summit’s agenda, starting by redirecting trillions each year from three parts of our economies that are driving climate change and inequality: fossil fuels, unfair colonial debts, and the super rich.
In light of reporting that the Summit is off track to deliver, signatories argue Global North governments who hold both an outsized say in the global financial architecture and an outsized historic responsibility for climate change must come to the Summit ready to pay their fair share. They warn the Paris Summit is at risk of simply rebranding a failed approach of relying on private banks and corporations alone to build solutions.
Taxing extreme wealth would yield about $2.5 trillion a year. Combined with two other key measures — canceling public external debts in low income countries and ending fossil fuel handouts and instead making companies pay for their damages — the letter shows concretely how Global North leaders can slow global crises while raising $3.5 trillion a year to start addressing them.