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The choice before delegates at the UN Tax Convention (INC-4) in New York this week is clear. They can preserve a system that rewards extraction and pollution, while communities pay the price in lost homes, livelihoods, and lives. Or they can begin to build a truly inclusive, fair, transparent, and equitable international tax system that delivers justice, restores trust, and offers hope for a shared and sustainable future.
This moment, though, is far bigger than tax policy. At its heart, the push for new global tax rules is about justice, repair, and hope in a world shaped by distressed multilateralism, deepening inequality, and an accelerating climate breakdown.
The numbers alone expose the moral failure of the current system.
Since 2015, the wealth of the world’s richest 1 per cent has surged by more than US$33.9 trillion, enough to end annual global poverty 22 times over. Between 2000 and 2019 alone, fossil fuel profits reached US$31.3 trillion, or about US$4.3 billion every day. These figures tell a simple truth: the global economy is working extremely well, just not for most people and certainly not for the planet.
For Africa and much of the Global South, this reality is not accidental. Today’s global fiscal architecture is rooted in a colonial economic model designed to extract resources, labour, and value while limiting the ability of African countries to raise domestic revenues for public goods.
Tax avoidance, illicit financial flows, and generous subsidies for polluting industries are not technical failures of the system. They are political choices that continue to entrench historical power imbalances while enabling extractive relationships with Africa.
The consequences are devastating and increasingly visible.
Governments in developing countries are far off track to end poverty, tackle the climate crisis, and deliver sustainability commitments made more than a decade ago. Climate damage to farming systems, infrastructure, health services, and productivity is already eroding hard-won development gains made across Africa. Droughts, floods, cyclones, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe, while energy poverty and rising food prices deepen the cost-of-living crisis for millions.
At the same time, UN climate talks are stalling. Many Global North governments claim there is not enough money to meet their international climate finance obligations, fueling a breakdown in trust between countries and undermining cooperation to cut emissions. This narrative is not only misleading. It is dangerous.
Let’s be clear. There is no shortage of money. What is missing is the political will to hold the biggest polluters accountable and to transform the rules that promote widespread suffering in our world.
This is precisely why this UN Tax Convention matters. Not because new global tax rules are an end in themselves, but because they are an important tool to unlock huge public revenues to fund climate, social, and economic investments. New global tax rules can help finance resilient food systems, affordable and reliable energy, quality public services, and a just green energy transition. They can shift incentives away from pollution and over-consumption, curb excessive profits in fossil fuel and other extractive sectors while redirecting resources toward the people.
Crucially, the negotiations in New York are about international solidarity. New global tax rules will challenge fascism and instead offer a shared vision: a world where ordinary people are protected from the rising cost of living, floods, droughts, displacements, and energy poverty. That protection matters. Under that new system, those who have benefited the most from a broken system must contribute a fair share to uplift others.
Equally, new global tax rules must be designed carefully to avoid unintended harm to marginalised communities. This means prioritising progressive taxation, removing regressive subsidies that disproportionately benefit polluters, strengthening social protection systems, and ensuring that revenues raised are transparently reinvested into public goods. Justice is not only about who pays, but also about who benefits and who is protected in the transition.
If world leaders are serious about fighting inequality and raising the trillions needed for climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals, they cannot pretend that taxing pollution is too complex, too sensitive, or too soon.
Amos Wemanya is a senior climate advisor at Power Shift Africa
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The choice before delegates at the UN Tax Convention (INC-4) in New York this week is clear. They can preserve a system that rewards extraction and pollution, while communities pay the price in lost homes, livelihoods, and lives. Or they can begin to build a truly inclusive, fair, transparent, and equitable international tax system that delivers justice, restores trust, and offers hope for a shared and sustainable future.
This moment, though, is far bigger than tax policy. At its heart, the push for new global tax rules is about
justice, repair, and hope
in a world shaped by distressed multilateralism, deepening inequality, and an accelerating climate breakdown.
The numbers alone expose the moral failure of the current system.
Since 2015, the wealth of the world’s richest 1 per cent has surged by more than
US$33.9 trillion
,
enough to end annual global poverty
22 times over. Between 2000 and 2019 alone, fossil fuel profits reached
US$31.3 trillion,
or about
US$4.3 billion every day. These figures tell a simple truth: the global economy is working extremely well, just not for most people and certainly not for the planet.
For Africa and much of the Global South, this reality is not accidental. Today’s global fiscal architecture is rooted in a colonial economic model designed to extract resources, labour, and value while limiting the ability of African countries to raise domestic revenues for public goods.
Tax avoidance, illicit financial flows, and generous subsidies for polluting industries are not technical failures of the system. They are
political choices
that continue to entrench historical power imbalances while enabling extractive relationships with Africa.
The consequences are devastating and increasingly visible.
Governments in developing countries are far off track to end poverty, tackle the climate crisis, and deliver sustainability commitments made more than a decade ago. Climate damage to farming systems, infrastructure, health services, and productivity is already eroding hard-won development gains made across Africa. Droughts, floods, cyclones, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe, while energy poverty and rising food prices deepen the cost-of-living crisis for millions.
At the same time, UN climate talks are stalling. Many Global North governments claim there is not enough money to meet their international climate finance obligations, fueling a breakdown in trust between countries and undermining cooperation to cut emissions. This narrative is not only misleading. It is dangerous.
Let’s be clear. There is no shortage of money. What is missing is the political will to hold the biggest polluters accountable and to transform the rules that promote widespread suffering in our world.
This is precisely why this UN Tax Convention matters. Not because new global tax rules are an end in themselves, but because they are an important tool to unlock
huge public
revenues
to fund
climate, social, and economic investments. New global tax rules can help finance resilient food systems, affordable and reliable energy, quality public services, and a just green energy transition. They can shift incentives away from pollution and over-consumption, curb excessive profits in fossil fuel and other extractive sectors while redirecting resources toward the people.
Crucially, the negotiations in New York are about
international solidarity. New global tax rules will challenge fascism and instead offer a shared vision: a world where ordinary people are protected from the rising cost of living, floods, droughts, displacements, and energy poverty. That protection matters. Under that new system, those who have benefited the most from a broken system must contribute a fair share to uplift others.
Equally, new global tax rules must be designed carefully to avoid unintended harm to marginalised communities. This means prioritising progressive taxation, removing regressive subsidies that disproportionately benefit polluters, strengthening social protection systems, and ensuring that revenues raised are transparently reinvested into public goods. Justice is not only about
who pays, but also about
who benefits and who is protected in the transition.
If world leaders are serious about fighting inequality and raising the trillions needed for climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals, they cannot pretend that taxing pollution is too complex, too sensitive, or too soon.
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Amos Wemanya is a senior climate advisor at Power Shift Africa
Follow The Standard
channel
on WhatsApp
By Amos Wemanya