The COP23 meeting is currently running in Bonn. Among the main questions - how can we raise the $100 billion a year that is needed to combat climate change, especially since Trump's decision to effectively pull out of the deal.
There's an incredibly simple solution. As I documented recently, global financial transactions in 2016 totalled over $11 quadrillion - that's 100,000 times more than the amount needed. And that $11 quadrillion figure has been exceeded in 4 of the last 10 years, despite the financial crisis.
It follows that an absolutely minuscule tax of 0.001% would finance the whole thing, without the need for governments to chip in directly using taxpayers money. Everyone on the planet would be contributing, in proportion to their financial resources.
I see another huge advantage in the current situation where the recently released Paradise Papers have revealled the true extent of tax evasion. The UN should simply impose the 0.001% tax on absolutely every transaction, wherever it occurs. Apart from providing the funds necessary to fund the fight against climate change, it would mean that anyone attempting to hide their financial activities could be commiting a criminal offence. The UN should have prisons for anyone who attempts to cheat the system by making undeclared financial transactions.
The only transactions that could escape such a tax would be payments in cash. But it would be easy to phase out cash as a means of payment. Even in Africa, people are getting used to using mobile phones for banking.
So, is anyone listening?
Let's do it!
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