African leaders call for new global taxes to fund climate change action in new declaration

African leaders on Wednesday proposed new global taxes to fund climate change action in a declaration that will form the basis of their negotiating position at November’s COP28 summit.

The Nairobi Declaration capped the three-day Africa Climate Summit in Kenya, which was dominated by discussions of how to mobilise financing to adapt to increasingly extreme weather, conserve natural resources and develop renewable energy.

Despite suffering from some of the worst impacts of climate change, Africa only receives about 12 per cent of the financing it needs to cope, according to researchers.

While organisers emphasised market-based solutions such as carbon credits in the lead-up to the summit, the final declaration was heavy on demands that major polluters commit more resources to help poorer nations.

In remarks concluding the summit, President of Kenya William Ruto criticised the “unjust configuration of multilateral institutional frameworks that perpetually place African nations on the back foot through costly financing”.

The declaration urged world leaders “to rally behind the proposal for a global carbon taxation regime including a carbon tax on fossil fuel trade, maritime transport and aviation, that may also be augmented by a global financial transaction tax”.