A wealth tax to improve society and fight climate change

Huge amounts of wealth is accumulated at the top of our society by people whose lifestyles are directly contributing to environmental collapse. The collective wealth of billionaires in Britain increased to a total of £182 billion in 2024, £35 million a day. The rich also have a higher carbon footprint than everyone else living their lavish lifestyle without consequence.

There are growing calls for a wealth tax to begin to redistribute wealth to where it is needed. This is especially important when trying to deal with the north/south global divide - where individuals

The climate crisis is a global emergency that requires immediate resources. The world has to spend huge amounts of money to:

• Transition to sustainable energy and stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere

• Improve resilience to damage caused by changing climates both in the UK and abroad

• Cover losses incurred by climate-induced disasters such as floods and droughts with particular focus on countries more vulnerable to climate degradation

A 2% tax on assets exceeding £10 million could raise as much as £24 billion a year. Raising capital gains to meet income tax rates would generate another £14bn a year.[1]

What are specific costs that will need to be paid for?

• The total cost of addressing the climate emergency for Britain in the next 5 years, excluding costs to protect jobs and pensions for affected workers, will be roughly £304 billion per year, and will rise rapidly for the remainder of the century [2] [3] [4] [5]

• The OBR estimates the total net cost of decarbonising the UK economy will be £344bn (taking into account savings, such as improvements to the energy efficiency of buildings and vehicle)

• The estimated cost to insulate all homes in Britain to a minimum standard is around £271 billion

It is clear that a wealth tax will only go a small way towards recovering the total costs of climate change. There must be a fundamental redistribution of wealth to enable a green transition and mitigate the impact of climate change.

This is a petition to call on the government to start to properly tax the wealthy. We support radical economic change. A wealth tax is a first step towards a sustainable and better society for everyone.

[1] Tax Justice UK https://taxjustice.uk/blog/ten-tax-reforms-to-raise-60-billion-for-public-services-and-a-fairer-economy/

[2] P Watkiss, The Costs of Adaptation, and the Economic Costs and Benefits of Adaptation in the UK, Climate Change Committee, 2022, pg. 21.

(Website: https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Costs-of-Adaptation-and-the-Economic-Costs-and-Benefits-of-Adaptation-in-the-UK-Paul-Watkiss.pdf)

[2] Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, What will climate change cost the UK?, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2022, pg. 5.

(Website: https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Climate-costs-UK-policy-brief.pdf)

[3] V Songwe, N Stern and A Bhattacharya, Finance for climate action: scaling up investment for climate and development, Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, 2022, pg. 23.

(Website: https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IHLEG-Finance-for-Climate-Action-1.pdf)

[4] C Strinati and C Baudry, Top-down Climate Finance Needs, Climate Policy Initiative, 30 April 2025, How much do we need to adapt to climate change and build resilient economies?, https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/top-down-climate-finance-needs/, accessed 21 May 2025.