"It’s time to make big polluters pay", a campaign by Care France

Ahead of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact to be held in Paris on June 22 and 23, 2023, CARE France launched its public mobilization campaign "It’s time to make big polluters pay" calling for a tax on the superprofits made by fossil fuel companies (oil, gas, coal) in order to finance the response to the climate emergency.

The facts and figures that expose those responsible for climate change 

According to a report published prior to COP27 by The Loss and Damage Collaboration and entitled "The Cost of Delay", the responsibility of industrialized countries and the fossil fuel industry is indisputable. 

189 million : this is the average number of people affected by extreme weather events in developing countries each year since 1991. 

However, 1991 was the year when a mechanism was first proposed to deal with the costs of climate impacts in low-income countries, now called the "Loss and Damage Fund". 

500 billion dollars is the amount of economic losses attributed to climate change between 2000 and 2019 in 55 developing countries. 

79% of recorded deaths and 97% of the total number of people affected by the consequences of extreme weather events were in developing countries 

"It’s time to make big polluters pay" campaign

Although countries of the "Global South" are the first victims of climate change, they are paradoxically the least responsible for it. In the face of this widely documented injustice, CARE France highlights the disproportionate responsibility of the fossil fuel industry and points out that gas, oil and coal companies are responsible for more than 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

In 20 years, this industry has made enough profit to cover nearly 60 times the cost of economic losses in the 55 countries most vulnerable to climate change. 

The Summit for a New Global Financing Pact : an opportunity to shift the lines ?

The Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, to be held in Paris on June 22 and 23, 2023, could make it possible to define innovative resources to finance the climate emergency facing certain countries from the South. 

A tax on super-profits could contribute to the Loss and Damage Fund, initiated at COP27, whose ambition is to fund the financial costs associated with loss and damage in developing countriess. 

Through this campaign, CARE France invites citizens to call on the French government to tax the fossil fuel industries to finance this fund. 

How can citizens take action ?

• By calling on the French government via this link to urge President Emmanuel Macron, co-host of this Summit, to take ambitious action and introduce a tax on the super-profits of oil, gas and coal companies, and to encourage other political leaders of the world to follow him.

• By spreading the word about the campaign on social networks.