{"id":57122,"date":"2025-02-28T08:08:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T08:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=57122"},"modified":"2025-03-01T08:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T08:10:08","slug":"over-500000-people-demand-oil-gas-companies-pay-for-climate-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/57122\/over-500000-people-demand-oil-gas-companies-pay-for-climate-damages\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 500,000 people demand oil & gas companies pay for climate damages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cape Town, February 28, 2024<\/strong> \u2014 Greenpeace Africa delivered on Friday 28th February a global petition<\/a> on behalf of more than half a million people, calling on governments to force fossil fuel companies to \u201cstop their climate wrecking activities\u201d and \u201crepair and pay for the damage they have caused.\u201d The petition was handed over to a coalition of 17 countries and groups currently reviewing \u201cpolluter pays\u201d levies [1] at the sidelines of the meeting of the Finance in Commons Summit in Cape Town.[2] In parallel, Cape Town\u2019s iconic Table Mountain National Park is being consumed by wildfires,<\/sub> in the midst of the worst drought in more than 100 years across Southern Africa.[3]<\/p>\n\n

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Sherelee Odayar, Greenpeace Africa’s Oil and Gas Campaigner,<\/strong> said: \u201cIt is unfair to expect that ordinary people will face the climate crisis with cents and rands, while the polluters in chief will pocket billions. It is also impractical: Most world governments simply cannot afford to provide climate solutions at the needed scale. Drought, extreme heat, storms, floods and fires are disproportionately affecting Africa and other Global Majority countries. Science and technology can help bring relief, now governments must make polluters pay to deliver justice and raise the necessary funds.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n

Signatures by people from Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia were collected between 2023-24, the two hottest years since records began, replete with extreme weather events fuelled by greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry. At the same, five oil and gas corporations alone reported over US$100 billion cumulatively in profit for last year. <\/p>\n\n

The collective demand was presented to the secretariat of the Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce, a coalition of 17 countries and groups, co-led by Barbados, France, and Kenya. It contributes to a public process of consultation which started last month concerning a series of proposals being considered by the governments who are members of the Taskforce, including options to apply levies on fossil fuel industry profits and extraction to fund climate action.<\/p>\n\n

A letter accompanying the petition reminds that oil and gas companies \u201cknowingly lied about climate change and lobbied to slow action\u201d and are failing to pay their fair share. \u201cSuper rich individuals and other polluting industries\u2026 should also be held to account. Making polluters pay for the damages they have caused is vital to help communities across the world to recover, rebuild and invest in climate solutions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The petition\u2019s demands are in line with public polling across a range of geographies, including research<\/a> recently commissioned by Greenpeace International, which has consistently demonstrated the strong popularity of increasing taxes on oil and gas profits. <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace Africa calls for designing tax and penalty mechanisms in a way that is fair and proportionate – including: ensuring a well-managed and just transition<\/a> out of coal, oil and gas, while imposing more polluter taxes and fines on the industry to help fund the transition; taking steps to prevent knock-on increases in prices and the cost of living, especially for people living in poverty; and ensuring that people most impacted by climate change benefit the most from revenues raised. <\/p>\n\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

[1] The Global Solidarity Levies Task Force: For People and the Planet explores feasible, scaleable and sensible options for levies to raise additional resources for climate and development: https:\/\/globalsolidaritylevies.org\/world-leaders-pledge-action-on-climate-finance-as-coalition-for-solidarity-levies-launched-at-cop29\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

[2] The 5th Finance in Common Summit (FiCS), co-hosted by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB): https:\/\/www.financeincommonsummit2025.com\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

[3] A night of flames: Table Mountain fire lights up the Cape Town skyline https:\/\/www.capetownetc.com\/news\/a-night-of-flames-table-mountain-fire-lights-up-the-ct-skyline\/<\/a> ; Climate change behind the 2021 Table Mountain fire \u2013 study https:\/\/mg.co.za\/the-green-guardian\/2023-03-02-climate-change-behind-the-2021-table-mountain-fire-study\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

Photos<\/a>: <\/strong>Handover of petition by Greenpeace Africa campaigner<\/p>\n\n

For more information, contact:\u00a0
<\/strong>
Greenpeace Africa Press Desk: <\/strong>pressdesk.africa@greenpeace.org<\/a>\u00a0

Greenpeace International Press Desk<\/strong>: pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org, +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours). Follow @greenpeacepress for our latest international press releases.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greenpeace Africa delivered on Friday 28th February a global petition on behalf of more than half a million people, calling on governments to force fossil fuel companies to \u201cstop their climate wrecking activities\u201d and \u201crepair and pay for the damage they have caused.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":57123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"Make Polluters Pay","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[26,46],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-57122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protecttheenvironment","tag-energy","tag-greenpeaceafrica","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57125,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57122\/revisions\/57125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57122"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=57122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}