Hello!
The countdown to the end of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan is upon us.
The climate summit only has two days left to agree on a new target for how much money should be provided to developing countries to help them adapt to climate-fuelled weather disasters and transition to cleaner energy systems.
A previous goal to provide $100 billion per year expires in 2025. The new goal needs to be $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade, according to experts.
Officials spent the first week trying to agree deals across a range of different issues including finance, carbon markets, the future of fossil fuels and efforts to mitigate the rise in global temperatures.
Now, the outstanding items have been handed over to ministers so they can use their political clout to try to get agreements across the line.
A text has been scheduled for publication on Wednesday evening.
What’s going on now?
The next steps are about trying to whittle down draft texts containing a huge range of wording options into a final document that can be adopted by consensus at the end of the summit.
The focus in the negotiating rooms has been on defining the structure of a new target, including what counts as climate finance and who needs to pay in.
Only once that is agreed are parties expected to start talking about the size of the target.
What are the options?
Issues to iron out include whether countries such as China should be counted among the richer core donors, and the degree to which countries should provide finance in the form of grants, loans or even taxes.
That’s right, some see new taxes as one way to achieve the $1 trillion climate finance target.
The Global Solidarity Levies Task Force (GSLT), led by France, Barbados and Kenya, is exploring the issue.
Click here for a full list of the options being discussed and estimates about how much could be raised.
Otherwise, here are three of my picks that stand out:
Fossil fuel tax: GSLT said revenues could be generated in future through a levy on extraction or "windfall" taxes on energy company profits. A "Climate Damages Tax" of $5/ton extracted in 2024 would generate an estimated $216 billion, a Greenpeace report this year said.
Wealth tax: The Group of 20 largest economies this year discussed whether to raise taxes on the super-rich. A report backed by current G20 leader Brazil proposed a global minimum tax of 2% of wealth for the world's roughly 3,000 dollar-billionaires, to raise about $250 billion a year.
Crypto: Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are created by computation power driven by energy usage that creates emissions. A global tax on electricity use of $0.045 per kWh could raise $5.2 billion, the International Monetary Fund has estimated.
Also on my radar today:
