Rich countries can unlock $6.6 trillion annually for climate action, new data shows

NEW YORK, September 22 – Rich countries can unlock $6.6 trillion (USD) per year in public funding for climate action, new research by Oil Change International finds.

The new research, titled We Can Pay for It, shows how ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules can raise the public money needed to finance a just transition to renewables and other urgent needs from healthcare to housing.

In one year alone, from September 2024 to September 2025, the estimated funds Global North countries can raise by implementing the ‘We Can Pay For It’ policy package have grown by 24% from $5.3 to $6.6 trillion.

As governments convene for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Climate Week in New York this week, leaders of rich Global North countries are under growing pressure to pay their fair share of global climate finance that is urgently needed to enable a transition away from fossil fuels and address climate impacts. Today’s research debunks their claims that there is not enough money to cover these costs at home or abroad.

While families struggle to meet basic needs and storms rage, governments have allowed billionaires, warhawks, and fossil fuel CEOs to accumulate over $40 trillion in new wealth in the last decade. This fair, polluter-pays policy agenda would begin to undo this massive transfer of wealth and power to the biggest culprits of the climate crisis while also freeing up urgently needed public funds.

Although at COP28 governments committed to a fair, funded transition away from fossil fuels, the world is still off track. If rich governments face up to their responsibilities as the biggest drivers of the climate crisis and implement key measures in their own countries, they can unlock:

• $3.5 trillion – increase taxes on the super rich
• $1.1 trillion – end fossil fuel handouts and tax fossil fuel exploration
• $1.1 trillion – set minimum corporate tax rates and close tax loopholes
• $608 billion – cancel unfair public debt payments and reform global debt rules
• $280 billion – cut ballooning public military budgets by 20%

Beyond calling for rich countries to pay their fair share of global climate finance, We Can Pay For It makes the case for rich countries to stop blocking Global South governments’ efforts to overhaul unfair global finance rules. If these reforms are made, it will be viable for all countries to adopt the proposed measures, and the authors estimate this would raise an additional $4.4 trillion per year. Many of these changes are on the agenda at this year’s UNGA, most notably proposals for more democratic, UN-led governance of tax and debt.

Bronwen Tucker, Global Public Finance lead at Oil Change International, said: 

“Our latest data exposes the lie perpetuated by fossil fuel CEOs, billionaires, and war hawks that we cannot afford to pay for climate action. The fact is that these rich polluters have made trillions off of rising inequality and worsening climate disasters in the last two decades. Rich country leaders have enabled this. They must check their priorities instead of leading us further down a path of war, fossil fuel lock-in, and inequality. It’s time to stop the money flowing to climate culprits and use it to fund solutions instead.

Leaders in the EU, Canada, UK, and Australia also need to get on board with Global South countries’ proposals to overhaul global finance rules to enable rather than hinder fair polluter pays policies. This agenda will free up trillions in public money each year for urgent needs like renewable energy, affordable housing, universal healthcare, and addressing climate disasters.”