As a co-founder of the Global Alliance for a Green New Deal (GGNDA), I’ve signed a statement calling for new money from IMF, a wealth tax and reform of global finance so that the global South can tackle climate breakdown and invest in a Green New Deal.

Ahead of the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris, we call upon the leaders present at the Paris summit to lay the foundations for a global Green New Deal by supporting:

• A new issuance of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) for immediate global relief, at least equalling the $650bn released in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Recycled SDRs channeled to lower income countries must: be additional to existing Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) and climate finance commitments; provide debt-free financing; not be tied to policy conditionality; be accessible to middle-income countries; and include transparency and accountability safeguards on both providers and recipients.

• An end to unsustainable debt payments, including the elimination of IMF surcharges. This measure should include immediate interventions to increase fiscal space, as well as a coordinated institutional response for longer term solutions to the debt crisis.

• Adequate grant-based funding for the Loss and Damage Fund set up at COP27. The sources of this funding should be based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle.

• International tax justice, including the regulation of illicit financial flows, a financial transaction tax, an end to tax havens and profit-shifting, and a wealth tax on the very richest.

• The urgent and long overdue reform of the international financial institutions so that they are democratically governed and accountable to the world’s people.

Read more from the Global Alliance for a Green New Deal here.