COP29 ideas include levy on business class flights, bond trades

More expensive business class flights, levies on stock and bond trades and a $5-a-ton tax on fossil fuel emissions. These are just some of the ideas being pitched by influential leaders at the COP29 summit as a way to raise much needed cash to help the world battle climate change. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has emerged as one of the leading international voices on climate finance, is spearheading efforts to find new funding for developing nations and small island states. The task has become more urgent as extreme weather risks rise and it becomes clear that these countries can’t rely solely on the goodwill of their richer peers. At COP29, Mottley once again called for countries to further examine innovative sources of finance. She said that placing levies on shipping companies, airlines and some financial trades, as well as taxing fossil fuel extraction, could raise at least $350b a year — more than three times what rich nations mobilize annually through public sources. The proposal is a continuation of Mottley’s campaign to raise more climate finance that started under the Bridgetown Initiative in 2022. “These decisions are not beyond us politically,” Mottley said in Baku on Tuesday. “The elephant in the room for financial services cannot continue to be avoided, even if we’ve been unsuccessful in the past.”<br/>