Trudeau government backs talks for a levy on shipping to help developing nations fight climate change

OTTAWA — Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says the federal government is “very supportive” of talks to create a new levy on greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transportation, as countries gather in Azerbaijan to discuss ways to raise billions of dollars for climate action in cash-strapped developing nations. 
Speaking to reporters by phone from Baku, where this year’s annual United Nations climate talks are taking place, Guilbeault called for private sector banks and other financial institutions to help close what the Canadian government believes is a yawning, $2-trillion (U.S.) shortfall in annual funding for developing countries to help prevent the worst extremes of climate change under the 2015 Paris Agreement. 
To help rally more funding, Guilbeault said Canada is putting up $160 million to launch a new fund — called GAIA — that will finance projects to slash emissions and help lower-income countries adapt to the damages of climate change, including small island states in the Caribbean. The fund will include direct grants and long-term loans, with a goal of rallying $2 billion from governments and private sources, Guilbeault said. 
With contributions from Canada, the international Green Climate Fund, and Japanese bank Mitsubishi Financial Group, Guilbeault said the fund already has more than $800 million committed to it, and that it will be “operational in the very near future.”
With climate financing expected to be a major focus at the Baku talks, Guilbeault acknowledged that there are a range of ideas to raise more money. Earlier this year, several countries — including France, Brazil and Germany — called for a global two-per-cent wealth tax on billionaires to raise money for climate action and poverty reduction. Others, such as the International Monetary Fund, have called for global taxes on aviation and shipping emissions that an October report from the organization said could raise up to $200 billion (U.S.) per year by 2035. 
Asked about those proposals Tuesday, Guilbeault said Canada has been “very engaged” in discussions on new ways to raise climate funds, and cited the federal government’s support for talks at the UN’s marine branch, which is looking at creating a carbon pricing mechanism to curb shipping emissions — something that some small-island Pacific states have demanded in recent weeks.
“We are very supportive of the discussions that are happening at the International Marine Organization to put in place some kind of levy on international marine transportation,” Guilbeault said.
Miako Ushio, director of environmental affairs at the Shipping Federation of Canada, said her organization supports the idea of a global carbon price for the sector, but that it hasn’t taken a position on what should happen with any revenues generated. 
Guilbeault, meanwhile, said he doubts such a policy will be agreed upon during this month’s UN climate talks, and that he expects an overall climate financing goal to be hammered out instead. 
“The agreement we have to reach here is not necessarily exactly about which mechanism will enable us to achieve the funding goal that we will set for ourselves,” he said.
“We need to agree on what the new amount will be.” 
The annual UN climate talks, which began in 1992 and produced the Kyoto accord and Paris Agreement, also resulted in a pledge in 2009 to rally $100 billion (U.S.) per year in climate financing for developing countries by 2020. That goal was met two years late, in 2022, with Canada contributing more than $5 billion from 2021 to 2026. 
Now countries are facing calls to increase that funding, with the G20’s Independent High Level Expert Group on Climate Finance reporting last year that $2.4 trillion (U.S.) per year by 2030 is required in “emerging markets and developing countries” to transition to clean energy, conserve more nature and adapt to the damaging realities of a warmer world. 
Activists like those from Climate Action Network Canada, an umbrella organization of more than 150 groups, want the federal government in Ottawa to triple Canada’s current climate finance pledge to $15.9 billion between 2026 and 2031. 
Addressing the Baku summit on Tuesday, UN Secretary General António Guterres said a new climate financing deal is “a must” for the Baku summit, with developing countries saddled with debt and already grappling with the droughts, floods and other extreme weather that leading scientists warn will get worse with every increase in global temperatures. 
Guterres also pointed to “innovative” sources of funding, including possible levies on shipping and aviation emissions.
“On climate finance,” he said, “the world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price.”