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	We are still knocking on the door of future climate catastrophe by UN News, The Observer, agencies   13 Nov. 2021   UN Secretary-General's Statement on the Conclusion of the UN Climate Change Conference COP26:   'The approved texts are a compromise. They reflect the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today.. Unfortunately the collective political will was not enough to overcome some deep contradictions.   As I said at the opening, we must accelerate action to keep the 1.5 degree goal alive. Our fragile planet is hanging by a thread. We are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe.   It is time to go into emergency mode — or our chance of reaching net zero will itself be zero. I reaffirm my conviction that we must end fossil fuels subsidies. Phase out coal. Put a price on carbon.   Build resilience of vulnerable communities against the here and now impacts of climate change. And make good on the $100 billion climate finance commitment to support developing countries. We did not achieve these goals at this conference.   But we have some building blocks for progress.. The texts today reaffirm resolve towards the 1.5 degree goal. Boost climate finance for adaptation. Recognize the need to strengthen support for vulnerable countries suffering from irreparable climate damage.   And for the first time they encourage International Financial Institutions to consider climate vulnerabilities in concessional financial and other forms of support, including Special Drawing Rights. And finally close the Paris rule book with agreement on carbon markets and transparency. These are welcome steps, but they are not enough.   Science tells us that the absolute priority must be rapid, deep and sustained emissions reductions in this decade. Specifically — at least 45% cut by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.   But the present set of Nationally Determined Contributions -- even if fully implemented -- will still increase emissions this decade on a pathway that will clearly lead us to well above 2.4 degrees by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial levels.   To help lower emissions in many other emerging economies, we need to build coalitions of support including developed countries, financial institutions, those with the technical know-how.   This is crucial to help each of those emerging countries speed the transition from coal and accelerate the greening of their economies. I want to make a particular appeal for our future work in relation to adaptation and the issue of loss and damage. Adaptation isn’t a technocratic issue, it is life or death.   I was once Prime Minister of my country. And I imagine myself today in the shoes of a leader from a vulnerable country. COVID-19 vaccines are scarce. My economy is sinking. Debt is mounting. International resources for recovery are completely insufficient.   Meanwhile, although we contributed least to the climate crisis, we suffer most. And when yet another hurricane devastates my country, the treasury is empty.   Protecting countries from climate disaster is not charity. It is solidarity and enlightened self-interest.   We have another climate crisis today. A climate of mistrust is enveloping our globe. Climate action can help rebuild trust and restore credibility.   That means finally delivering on the $100 billion climate finance commitment to developing countries. No more IOUs.   It means measuring progress, updating climate plans every year and raising ambition. I will convene a global stock-taking summit at the heads of state level in 2023.   And it means – beyond the mechanisms already set out in the Paris Agreement – establishing clear standards to measure and analyze net zero commitments from non-state actors. I will create a High-Level Expert Group with that objective.   Finally, I want to close with a message of hope and resolve to young people, indigenous communities, women leaders, all those leading the climate action army. I know many of you are disappointed. Success or failure is not an act of nature. It’s in our hands.   The path of progress is not always a straight line. Sometimes there are detours. Sometimes there are ditches. As the great Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson said: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”   We have many more seeds to plant along the path. We won’t reach our destination in one day or one conference. But I know we can get there. We are in the fight of our lives. Never give up. Never retreat. Keep pushing forward'. http://bit.ly/3kEvOdV   24 Oct. 2021   Global security and stability could break down, with migration crises and food shortages bringing conflict and chaos, if countries fail to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, the UN’s top climate official has warned ahead of the Cop26 climate summit.   Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said: “We’re really talking about preserving the stability of countries, preserving the institutions that we have built over so many years, preserving the best goals that our countries have put together. The catastrophic scenario would indicate that we would have massive flows of displaced people.”   The impact would cascade, she said, adding: “It would mean less food, so probably a crisis in food security. It would leave a lot more people vulnerable to terrible situations. It would mean a lot of sources of instability.”   So far, the commitments countries have made to reduce emissions fall far short of the 45% cut, based on 2010 levels, that scientists say is needed by 2030 to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the goal in the Paris accord.   Current countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to cut green gas emissions, based on 165 latest available NDCs, representing all 192 Parties to the Paris Agreement, including the 116 new or updated NDCs communicated by 143 Parties as on 12 October 2021, compared to 86 new or updated NDCs covered by the September report reveal an alarming reality.   A sizable increase, of about 16%, in global GHG emissions in 2030 compared to 2010 is anticipated. Comparison to the latest findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that such an increase, unless changed quickly, may lead to a dangerous temperature rise of some 2.7°C by the end of the century.   “At the same time, the message from this update is loud and clear: Parties must urgently redouble their climate efforts if they are to prevent global temperature increases beyond the Paris Agreement’s goal of 1.5C – by the end of the century.   Overshooting the temperature goals will lead to a destabilised world and endless suffering, especially among those who have contributed the least to the GHG emissions in the atmosphere. This updated report unfortunately confirms the trend already indicated in the full Synthesis Report, which is that we are nowhere near where science says we should be,” she cautioned.   The IPCC has estimated that limiting global average temperature increases to 1.5C requires a reduction of CO2 emissions of 45% in 2030.   Patricia Espinosa also held out the possibility that if a shortfall remains at Glasgow, as is likely, between necessary and offered cuts, nations will asked to revise their plans soon after. As emissions are still rising and the 1.5C target will slip out of reach unless sharp cuts are made this decade. “This is the biggest challenge humanity is facing, so we really don’t have an option.”   http://coveringclimatenow.org/climate-beat-story/cop26-president-fights-back-tears-as-the-summit-comes-to-a-close/ http://theelders.org/news/elders-deplore-dereliction-leadership-cop26-gives-leaders-twelve-months-take-more-decisive http://www.dw.com/en/cop26-world-leaders-fail-to-honor-climate-pledge/a-59812348 http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/11/cop26-leaders-catastrophic-failure-on-climate-shows-they-have-forgotten-who-they-should-serve-and-protect-humanity-at-large/ http://www.ciel.org/news/at-cop26-a-failure-of-vision-action-equity-and-urgency/ http://www.escr-net.org/news/2021/cop26-did-not-deliver-rights-or-justice http://www.un.org/sg/en/node/260423   http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/state-of-climate-2021-extreme-events-and-major-impacts http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/greenhouse-gas-bulletin-another-year-another-record http://unfccc.int/news/updated-ndc-synthesis-report-worrying-trends-confirmed http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/updated-climate-commitments-ahead-cop26-summit-fall-far-short-net http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/governments-fossil-fuel-production-plans-dangerously-out-sync-paris http://productiongap.org/2021report/ http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/   Oct. 2021   It's time to hold governments to task for fossil fuels they permit, by Ploy Achakulwisut - Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)   Courts are telling oil, gas and coal companies to cut emissions from their products to curb climate change. Shouldn't governments also be responsible for projects they approve?   Earlier this year, a court in the Netherlands ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by almost half by 2030.   One of the most extraordinary aspects of this ruling was the court’s recognition that Shell is responsible not only for the emissions directly stemming from its business activities, but also for those from the burning of its products.   For the first time, a court recognized that fossil fuel companies cannot claim to be innocent suppliers of their planet-warming products.   Which raises the question: Don’t governments who carry out and support fossil fuel production bear some responsibility too?   In fact, state-owned companies control around half of global coal, oil, and gas production and account for 40% of investments in oil and gas worldwide.   Governments also routinely encourage and facilitate fossil fuel exploration and extraction by private companies through tax incentives and other subsidies; by issuing exploration licenses and drilling permits, by financing domestic and overseas projects; and by setting ambitious targets for future production in their national energy plans.   While a lot of attention has been paid to scrutinizing the level of global warming that countries’ emissions reduction pledges would lead us to, especially in the lead-up to the next UN climate summit, what’s gone on relatively unnoticed is how much the world’s governments intend to supply fossil fuels beyond what we can safely burn in the coming decades.   The Production Gap Report series, first launched in 2019 with the United Nations Environment Programme and published today in its third edition, aims to change that. The analysis, reflecting the latest national energy plans, shows that despite increasing warnings about the “production gap”, countries have done little to narrow it over the past three years.   Indeed, governments are still planning to produce more than twice the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The excess is particularly great with coal – around 240% – but it is also large for oil and gas: 60% and 70%, respectively. The production gap grows even wider by 2040.   These startling numbers are reinforced by government policies and narratives that belie their announcements of more ambitious climate action and net-zero commitments.   China is touting unconventional gas as “clean” fossil energy. Russia is branding its Arctic oil as “green”. Australia is promoting a “gas-fired recovery” from the COVID-19 recession. Norway and the UK intend to maximize economic recovery of their remaining oil and gas resources.   Saudi Arabia intends to be the “last man standing” among major oil producers. Brazil wants to become the fifth-largest oil and gas producer in the world, while the US will likely remain number one.   Meanwhile, fossil gas received more international public finance than any other energy source of energy in 2017–2019, averaging around US$16 billion per year, four times more than wind or solar. COVID-19 stimulus and recovery investments have also exacerbated the problem, with governments directing hundreds of billions of dollars into entrenching our reliance on fossil fuels.   The reality is that governments of major fossil fuel-producing countries are still not willing to acknowledge the fact that we need a rapid and sustained reduction of coal, oil and gas extraction as part of the global decarbonization effort to meet the Paris Agreement. They remain unwilling, even as climate damages are already widespread and intensifying in all parts of the world.   Even as renewable energy and electric vehicles have already or will soon overtake their fossil-fueled competitors in cost and appeal. Even as the window of opportunity for limiting long-term warming to 1.5°C is rapidly closing.   To date, most government action related to addressing the supply of fossil fuels has largely been restricted to promoting carbon capture and storage and minimizing methane emissions from extraction processes – which are themselves important steps, but vastly insufficient on their own for mitigating the climate crisis.   While some fossil fuel interests may leverage Europe’s record-high gas prices to wrongly blame the clean energy transition, what this situation truly underscores is the need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels – and vulnerability to their volatile prices and geopolitics – with smart policies and long-term planning.   This includes investing in energy storage facilities and more flexible energy systems alongside increasing renewable energy supply and energy efficiency, and protecting the public from energy price swings.   Because ultimately, it is energy that people demand, not fossil fuels. And as climate impacts intensify and spread to every region on our planet, so too are people’s demands for climate accountability: climate lawsuits against governments, fossil fuel companies, and financial actors now number in the thousands, including a recent challenge against the UK government for continuing to support oil and gas production in the North Sea.   What’s more, there is growing awareness that eliminating fossil fuels will also bring about important and immediate health and environmental benefits, such as avoiding millions of premature deaths from air pollution, protecting local communities and ecosystems in extraction “sacrifice zones”, and reducing plastic pollution and radioactive waste.   Some governments are now starting to place bans and restrictions on fossil fuel exploration and extraction, with Costa Rica and Denmark spearheading efforts to coordinate an international phase-out of fossil fuel production. Major fossil fuel-producing countries need to get on board.   As this year’s Production Gap Report makes clear, there is no time to waste. If these countries want to show they’re serious about meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, they need to pair their emission reduction commitments with clear, transparent plans to wind down fossil fuel production.   * Ploy Achakulwisut is a lead author of the 2021 Production Gap Report: http://www.sei.org/publications/the-production-gap-report-2021/   Oct. 2021   We are catastrophically far from the crucial goal of 1.5°C, write Vanessa Nakate and Greta Thunberg for Fridays for Future.   To world leaders,   "Betrayal." That's how young people around the world describe our governments' failure to cut carbon emissions. And it's no surprise.   We are catastrophically far from the crucial goal of 1.5°C, and yet governments everywhere are still accelerating the crisis, spending billions on fossil fuels.   This is not a drill. It's code red for the Earth. Millions will suffer as our planet is devastated -- a terrifying future that will be created, or avoided, by the decisions you make. You have the power to decide.   As citizens across the planet, we urge you to face up to the climate emergency. Not next year. Not next month. Now:   Keep the precious goal of 1.5°C alive with immediate, drastic, annual emission reductions unlike anything the world has ever seen.   End all fossil fuel investments, subsidies, and new projects immediately, and stop new exploration and extraction.   End 'creative' carbon accounting by publishing total emissions for all consumption indices, supply chains, international aviation and shipping, and the burning of biomass.   Deliver the $100bn promised to the most vulnerable countries, with additional funds for climate disasters.   Enact climate policies to protect workers and the most vulnerable, and reduce all forms of inequality.   We can do this. There is still time to avoid the worst consequences if we are prepared to change. It will take determined leadership. And it will take courage - but know that when you rise, billions will be right behind you.   It can feel incredibly hard to keep hope alive in the face of inaction. But our hope lies in people -- in the millions of us who are rising to fight for the future. It lies in our dogged determination to speak truth to power. Our hope is rooted in action and fuelled by a love for humanity and our most beautiful earth. We can do this. And we must do this. Together.   * Greta Thunberg is a youth climate leader from Sweden, Vanessa Nakate is a Ugandan climate-justice activist and founder of the Rise Up Movement, they are both members of the global youth movement Fridays for Future.   http://fridaysforfuture.org/what-we-do/activist-speeches/ http://bit.ly/3pY317A http://time.com/6109452/vanessa-nakate-climate-justice/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/one-billion-children-extremely-high-risk-impacts-climate-crisis-unicef http://www.savethechildren.net/news/climate-crisis-710-million-children-live-countries-high-risk http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/library/born-climate-crisis-why-we-must-act-now-secure-childrens-rights   http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/state-of-climate-2021-extreme-events-and-major-impacts http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/updated-climate-commitments-ahead-cop26-summit-fall-far-short-net http://fossilfueltreaty.org/open-letter http://fossilfueltreaty.org/nobel-letter http://climatenetwork.org/2021/10/26/hundreds-of-civil-society-organisations-worldwide-demand-cop26-deliver-finance-for-climate-damages/ http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee-iasc-climate
	Losses to OECD Tax Havens Could Vaccinate Global Population Three Times Over by Global Alliance for Tax Justice, agencies   Nov. 2021   Countries are losing a total of $483 billion in tax a year to global tax abuse committed by multinational corporations and wealthy individuals – enough to fully vaccinate the global population against Covid-19 more than three times over.   The 2021 edition of the State of Tax Justice documents how a small club of rich countries with de facto control over global tax rules is responsible for the majority of tax losses suffered by the rest of the world, with lower income countries hit the hardest by global tax abuse. The findings are further galvanising calls to move rule-making on international tax from the OECD to the UN.   The State of Tax Justice 2021 - published by the Tax Justice Network, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice and the global union federation Public Services International - reports that of the $483 billion in tax that countries lose a year, $312 billion is lost to cross-border corporate tax abuse by multinational corporations and $171 billion is lost to offshore tax evasion by wealthy individuals.   The $483 billion loss consists of only direct tax losses: that is, tax losses that can be observed from analysing data self-reported by multinational corporations and from banking data collected by governments.   Uncounted in this estimate are the indirect losses: the chain-reaction losses that arise from tax abuses accelerating the race to the bottom and driving tax rates down globally. The IMF estimates that indirect losses from global tax abuse by multinational corporations are at least three times larger than direct losses. No equivalent estimate exists for the indirect losses of offshore tax evasion.   Tax Justice Network data scientist Miroslav Palansky said, “The $483 billion lost to tax havens a year is the tip of the iceberg. It’s what we can see above the surface thanks to some recent progress on tax transparency, but we know there’s a lot more tax abuse below the surface costing magnitudes more in tax losses.”   OECD countries, not palm-fringed islands, enable most of global tax abuse   Over 99 per cent of global tax losses countries suffer result from multinational corporations and wealthy individuals utilising abusive tax regulations and loopholes in higher income countries.   The lion’s share of blame among higher income countries falls on members of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), a small club of rich countries and the world’s leading rule-maker on international tax. Despite commitments by OECD members on curbing global tax abuse, OECD members were found to be responsible for facilitating 78 per cent of the tax losses countries suffer a year.   OECD members facilitate the handing over of $378 billion a year from public purses around the world to the wealthiest multinational corporations and individuals.   The worst culprit among OECD members is the UK, which is responsible for over a third (39 per cent) of the world’s tax loss. The UK is by far the world’s greatest enabler of global tax abuse, which it facilitates through a network made up of British Overseas Territories like the Cayman Islands, Crown Dependencies like Jersey and the City of London. Known as the UK spider’s web, the UK government has full powers to impose or veto law-making in these territories and dependencies and key government positions in these jurisdictions are appointed by the Queen.   The UK spider’s web, together with OECD members Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland are responsible for over half of the tax losses the world suffers (55 per cent), which is why the countries are often collectively referred to as the “axis of tax avoidance”. The axis of tax avoidance cost the world over $268 billion in tax losses a year, equivalent to more than 18 times the amount of money expected to have been spent globally on facemasks in 2020 and 20215.   The huge role the axis of tax avoidance plays in facilitating global tax abuse means that many OECD members are also among the heaviest losers, in absolute terms. France, for example, cost other countries over $4.6 billion in tax losses a year, but lost over $41 billion a year itself. Even in countries responsible for the most extreme levels of abuse, few citizens enjoy any benefits as almost all the tax losses their governments enable are pocketed by wealthy multinational corporations and individuals.   Citizens of these countries typically face higher inequalities, a greater threat of corruption of their political systems and the documented consequences of the “finance curse” phenomenon6. Reigning in OECD members’ tax havenry would generate major benefits to people living in both OECD and non-OECD member countries.   Despite the huge tax loss suffering imposed by these countries, no OECD member nor any axis of tax avoidance country appears on the EU tax haven blacklist7. The handful of mostly small island nations blacklisted by the EU are responsible for 1.1 per cent of global tax abuse.   Global tax abuse enabled by rich countries is hitting poorer countries the hardest. While higher income countries lose more tax in absolute terms, $443 billion a year, their tax losses represent a smaller share of their revenues - 9.7 per cent of their collective public health budgets. Lower income countries in comparison lose less tax in absolute terms, $39.7 billion a year, but their losses account for a much higher share of their current tax revenues and spending.   Collectively, lower income countries lose the equivalent of nearly half (48 per cent) of their public health budgets – and unlike OECD members, they have little or no say on the international rules that continue to allow these abuses.   The $483 billion lost to tax havens a year is enough to cover the cost of purchasing and delivering two Covid-19 vaccine doses for the global population three times over. This is equivalent to vaccinating 1000 people against Covid-19 every second.   The taxes that lower income countries lose to tax havens in a year would be enough to vaccinate 60 per cent of their populations, bridging the gap in vaccination rates between lower income and higher income countries. With their vaccination rates far lower, global tax abuse deals a double blow to lower income countries by robbing them of the funding to protect their populations against Covid-19 and, consequentially, exposing them to an even greater human and economic toll.   Analysis for the State of Tax Justice 2021 reveals that for every $1 OECD countries pledged to the COVAX programme, a worldwide initiative established to address vaccine inequity, they cost the rest of the world $43 in lost tax by facilitating global tax abuse. Altogether, OECD countries pledged $8.7 billion to the COVAX programme but cost the world $378 billion in lost tax.   If OECD countries had not pledged any money to COVAX but simply stopped facilitating global tax abuse instead, countries around the world could have collected enough tax revenue to vaccinate the global population against the Covid-19 virus 2.9 times over.   Dr. Dereje Alemayehu, executive coordinator of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice said:   “The richest countries, much like their colonial forebearers, have appointed themselves as the only ones capable of governing on international tax, draped themselves in the robes of saviours and set loose the wealthy and powerful to bleed the poorest countries dry. To tackle global inequality, we must tackle the inequality in power over global tax rules. Rules on where and how multinational corporations and the superrich pay tax must be set at the UN in the daylight of democracy, not by a small club of rich countries behind closed doors.”   Calls for shifting the responsibility of setting tax rules away from the OECD to the UN gained unprecedented traction this year when the High Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (FACTI) called for a comprehensive overhaul of the global architecture.   The FACTI Panel’s key recommendations draw closely on the work of the tax justice movement, and include the establishment of a UN tax convention, a Centre for Monitoring Taxing Rights at the UN to raise national accountability for illicit financial flows and tax abuse suffered by others, and a globally inclusive, intergovernmental UN forum for the urgent negotiation of further changes to the international tax rules.   The proposal follows years of criticism11 levied against the OECD for its failure to deliver meaningful change in its long-awaited tax reform proposals, and the hypocrisy of its members inflicting huge tax losses on others. The OECD’s latest global tax deal, which includes a global minimum tax rate, similarly came under fire this year for acquiescing to tax haven members like Ireland.   The tax deal is expected to recover only a sliver of tax revenues lost to tax havens and will redistribute most recovered taxes to rich OECD members instead of the countries where the taxes should have originally been paid.   Alex Cobham, chief executive at the Tax Justice Network said:   “Another year of the pandemic, and another half trillion dollars snatched by the wealthiest multinational corporations and individuals from public purses around the world. Tax can be our most powerful tool for tackling inequality, but instead it’s been made entirely optional for the superrich. We must reprogramme the global tax system to protect people’s wellbeing and livelihoods over the desires of the wealthiest, or the cruel inequalities exposed by the pandemic will be locked in for good. The State of Tax Justice tells us exactly which countries are responsible for the tax abuse we all suffer. It’s time they were held accountable.”   In addition to calling for a UN role on global tax, the State of Tax Justice also recommends the introduction of an excess profit tax and wealth tax. The report calls on governments to:   'Introduce an excess profit tax on multinational corporations making excess profits during the pandemic, such as global digital companies, in order to cut through profit shifting abuses. Multinational corporations’ excess profit would be identified at the global level, not the national level, to prevent corporations from underreporting their profits by shifting them into tax havens, and taxed using a unitary tax method'.   Introduction of a wealth tax to fund the Covid-19 response and address the long term inequalities the pandemic has exacerbated, with punitive rates for opaquely owned offshore assets and a commitment between governments to eliminate this opacity. The pandemic has already seen an explosion in the asset values of the wealthy, even as unemployment has soared to record levels in many countries.   Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary at Public Services International, said:   “Many corporate and political leaders applaud our frontline workers in public; yet in private, they undermine frontline services by continuing to perpetuate tax abuse on a repulsive scale. Ending tax dodging would pay for 1000 people to be fully vaccinated every single second; we could fully vaccinate the world's 135 million health and care workers in just a day and a half. The only way out of this crisis is to end vaccine inequality, and that requires both waiving patents and cracking down on corporate tax dodging, which pulls money away from our frontline health services and into their offshore bank accounts."   http://www.globaltaxjustice.org/en/latest/losses-oecd-tax-havens-could-vaccinate-global-population-three-times-over http://taxjustice.net/2021/11/16/losses-to-oecd-tax-havens-could-vaccinate-global-population-three-times-over-study-reveals/ http://socialeurope.eu/tax-abuse-its-costing-the-earth http://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/ http://taxjustice.net/2023/04/06/the-global-tax-rate-is-now-a-tax-haven-rewards-programme-and-switzerland-wants-in-first/ Visit the related web page
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