Make fossil fuel producers pay climate disaster levy
Climate change is making natural disasters like fires, floods, heatwaves and drought more frequent and more extreme.
The Australia Institute is proposing a National Climate Disaster Fund, funded by a levy of $1 per tonne of all coal gas and oil produced in Australia to help pay for some of the increasing costs of these climate disasters.
A $1 levy per tonne of carbon pollution on fossil fuel production in Australia would currently raise around $1.5 billion a year for the National Climate Disaster Fund.
Climate related disasters already cost Australian households and businesses billions of dollars every year. The devastating Black Summer fires appear to represent a step change in disaster costs with initial estimates of over $50 billion for this single disaster. These costs will keep rising as fires, floods, drought and heatwaves become more extreme as a result of climate change, unless emissions are cut decisively.
The Australia Institute’s Climate of the Nation 2020 survey found most Australians (65%) support the introduction of a levy on fossil fuel exports to pay for the impacts of climate change, with only 21% opposed.
Read more about The Australia Institute’s proposal for a National Climate Disaster Fund, and the full report.
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To the Parliament of Australia --
Climate change is making natural disasters like fires, floods, heatwaves and drought more frequent and more extreme.
These disasters are already costing ordinary Australians billions of dollars every year.
Every tonne of coal and gas mined in Australia ends up as more greenhouse gas being pumped into the atmosphere, fuelling climate change and making these disasters worse.
These costs will keep increasing as climate change gets worse.
We urge you to establish a National Climate Disaster Fund, funded by a levy on each tonne of all coal, gas and oil produced in Australia.