By Milliam Murigi
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.
For years, wealthy nations have insisted there isn’t enough money to meet these commitments at home or abroad. But a new report reveals that rich countries are in fact sitting on a vast pool of untapped resources that could transform the fight against climate change.
The report by Oil Change International, titled We Can Pay for It, shows that rich countries can unlock US$6.6 trillion per year in public funding for climate action. This money can be raised by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and reforming unfair global financial rules.
“While families struggle to meet basic needs and storms rage, governments have allowed billionaires, warhawks, and fossil fuel CEOs to accumulate over US$40 trillion in new wealth in the last decade,” reads part of the report.
Adding that “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.”
According to the report, in one year alone, from September 2024 to September 2025, the estimated funds that Global North countries can raise by implementing the ‘We Can Pay For It’ policy package have grown by 24 percent from US$5.3 to US$6.6 trillion.
Beyond urging rich countries to pay their fair share of global climate finance, the report also calls on them to stop blocking Global South efforts to reform unfair global finance rules. Such reforms would make it possible for all countries to adopt the proposed measures, unlocking an additional US$4.4 trillion every year. Many of these reforms are on the agenda at this year’s UNGA, including proposals for more democratic, UN-led governance of global tax and debt systems.
“The money for climate action is going to fossil fuel handouts and wars, and is being hoarded by the ultra-wealthy. We can unlock trillions of dollars by, among other measures, increasing taxes on the super-rich, cancelling unfair debt and ending fossil fuel funding,” says the report.
Although at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28), governments pledged to deliver a fair and funded transition away from fossil fuels, the world remains dangerously off track. Climate action continues to be undermined by inadequate financing, political inertia, and entrenched reliance on fossil fuels.
Yet, solutions exist if wealthy governments face up to their responsibilities as the largest historical emitters. Redirecting existing resources, curbing harmful subsidies, and ensuring fairer taxation could unlock trillions needed to finance a just transition, support vulnerable communities, and accelerate the shift to clean energy.
“Our latest data exposes the lie perpetuated by fossil fuel CEOs, billionaires, and war hawks that they 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. It’s time to stop the money flowing to climate culprits and use it to fund solutions instead,” said Bronwen Tucker, Global Public Finance lead at Oil Change International.
According to her, leaders in the European Union (EU), Canada, the 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.
