<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/28/brazil-radical-plan-tax-global-super-rich-tackle-climate-crisis>
"Proposals to slap a wealth tax on the world’s super-rich could yield $250bn
(£200bn) a year to tackle the climate crisis and address poverty and
inequality, but would affect only a small number of billionaire families,
Brazil’s climate chief has said.
Ministers from the G20 group of the world’s biggest developed and emerging
economies are meeting in Rio de Janeiro this weekend, where Brazil’s proposal
for a 2% wealth tax on those with assets worth more than $1bn is near the top
of the agenda.
No government was speaking out against the tax, said Ana Toni, who is national
secretary for climate change in the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva.
“Our feeling is that, morally, nobody’s against,” she told the
Observer in an
interview. “But the level of support from some countries is bigger than
others.”
However, the lack of overt opposition does not mean the tax proposal is likely
to be approved. Many governments are privately sceptical but unwilling to
publicly criticise a plan that would shave a tiny amount from the rapidly
accumulating wealth of the planet’s richest few, and raise money to address the
pressing global climate emergency.
Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary, told journalists in Rio that the US
“did not see the need” for a global initiative.
“People are not keen on global taxes,” Toni admitted. “And there is a question
over how you implement global taxes.” But she said levying and raising a tax
globally was possible, as had been shown by G7 finance ministers’ agreement to
levy a minimum 15% corporate tax.
“It should be at a global level, because otherwise, obviously, rich people will
move from one country to another,” she said.
Only about 100 families around the world would be affected by the proposed 2%
levy, she added. The world’s richest 1% have added $42tn to their wealth in the
past decade, roughly 36 times more than the bottom half of the world’s
population did."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
