Eight countries including France, Spain and Kenya are pushing for increased taxation on premium air tickets and private jet travel to fund climate action and development.
The newly formed “coalition of the willing”, which also includes Barbados, Somalia, Benin, Sierra Leone and Antigua and Barbuda, aims to increase the number of countries applying such levies and agree on ways to distribute the money raised.
They are expected to announce details of how the mechanism would work at the COP30 climate summit this November, with changes in their own national legislation planned as soon as next year, Climate Home News understands.
The initiative was launched this week on the sidelines of the UN Finance for Development (FfD) summit in Seville, Spain, where representatives from governments, financial institutions and civil society are debating how to channel more money towards efforts to tackle climate change, hunger and health issues in the face of sweeping aid cuts.
“We need those that benefited from globalisation to contribute more to financing,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “I urge all possible countries to join this international framework because it is absolutely key.”
‘Coalition of the willing’
The coalition on premium flying levies was born out of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, which since its launch in 2023 has been looking at ways to raise new sources of finance for climate and development from sectors that contribute disproportionately to global carbon emissions or are undertaxed, such as aviation, fossil fuels or financial transactions.
Friederike Röder, director of the task force’s secretariat, told Climate Home that targeting aviation first is a “very pragmatic” choice as levies can be introduced domestically by a “coalition of the willing” without the need for an international agreement.
“It’s something that can be put in place quite quickly, it makes sense economically speaking from a tax justice and climate perspective, and can generate a significant sum,” she said.
UN expects climate finance roadmap to offer “clear next steps”
Levies on business and first-class tickets for international and domestic flights and on kerosene used for private jets could raise respectively up to 37 billion euros ($43.7 billion) and 41 billion euros ($48.5 billion) per year if implemented globally, according to recent research commissioned by the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force.
The aviation sector accounts for over 2.5% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and is one of the sectors with the fastest-growing greenhouse gas emissions.
Fresh cash for resilience spending
Putting taxes on air passenger fares to find extra cash for global emergencies is not an entirely new concept. Since 2011, levies on plane tickets in countries including France have raised over $2 billion for Unitaid, an initiative supporting the treatment of those affected by HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in low-income countries.
The coalition will now work to “thrash out” the exact contours of the initiative before this year’s UN climate summit in Belém, Brazil, hoping that other countries will join in, Röder said.
Countries reach hard-fought compromise on climate adaptation metrics in Bonn
One element that will be defined as part of a public consultation is how the funds will be spent. The French Presidency said in a statement on Monday that “all or parts of the proceeds” would be channelled into “resilient investments and fair transitions”.
Röder expects that rich countries like France will spend part of the proceeds on initiatives in vulnerable nations facing the brunt of the climate crisis, but they will also keep some money for actions to boost resilience at home. “This would be a powerful signal because it would show that levies are used for global public goods,” she added.
Solidarity levies come to the fore
Governments across the world have shown renewed interest in tapping into “innovative” sources of cash for climate action amid tightening state budgets or changing priorities, such as increased defence spending.
Röder said levies are the best option to find “truly additional and debt-free” financing for climate adaptation and loss and damage.
The Brazilian government is looking to feature the so-called solidarity levies in the “Baku-to-Belém” roadmap to boost climate finance for developing countries. The document due out in November should lay out a plan for mobilising $1.3 trillion a year by 2035 after developed countries committed to raise only $300 billion annually at COP29 last year.
“Solidarity levies need to be a critical piece of the puzzle,” said Röder, but “should not be used to allow advanced economies to escape their commitments and responsibilities”.
The post Coalition set sights on taxing luxury air travel to fund climate action appeared first on Climate Home News.
Coalition set sights on taxing luxury air travel to fund climate action
Climate Change
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US announce they will seek a new trial and, if necessary, appeal the decision with the North Dakota Supreme Court following a North Dakota District Court judgment today awarding Energy Transfer (ET) USD $345 million.
ET’s SLAPP suit remains a blatant attempt to silence free speech, erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, and punish solidarity with peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International will also continue to seek damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits under EU anti-SLAPP legislation in the Netherlands.
Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director said: “Energy Transfer’s attempts to silence us are failing. Greenpeace International will continue to resist intimidation tactics. We will not be silenced. We will only get louder, joining our voices to those of our allies all around the world against the corporate polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise profits over people and the planet.
“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher. Through appeals in the US and Greenpeace International’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case in the Netherlands, we are exploring every option to hold Energy Transfer accountable for multiple abusive lawsuits and show all power-hungry bullies that their attacks will only result in a stronger people-powered movement.”
The Court’s final judgment today rejects some of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, but still awards hundreds of millions of dollars to ET without a sound basis in law. The Greenpeace defendants will continue to press their arguments that the US Constitution does not allow liability here, that ET did not present evidence to support its claims, that the Court admitted inflammatory and irrelevant evidence at trial and excluded other evidence supporting the defense, and that the jury pool in Mandan could not be impartial.[1][2]
ET’s back-to-back lawsuits against Greenpeace International and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a suit against ET under Dutch law and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark test of the new legislation which could help set a powerful precedent against corporate bullying.[4]
Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “This is part of a worrying trend globally: fossil fuel corporations are increasingly using litigation to attack and silence ordinary people and groups using the law to challenge their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to these tactics here in Australia.
“Rulings like this have a chilling effect on democracy and public interest litigation — we must unite against these silencing tactics as bad for Australians and bad for our democracy. Our movement is stronger than any corporate bully, and grows even stronger when under attack.”
Energy Transfer’s SLAPPs are part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Big Oil companies like Shell, Total, and ENI against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[3] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
-ENDS-
Images available in Greenpeace Media Library
Notes:
[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court Judge Gion follows a jury verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Judge Gion subsequently threw out several items from the jury’s verdict, reducing the total damages to approximately US$345 million.
[2] Public statements from the independent Trial Monitoring Committee
[3] Energy Transfer’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2017 under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on Energy Transfer’s claims based on state law, so Energy Transfer promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
[4] Greenpeace International sent a Notice of Liability to Energy Transfer on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline giant of Greenpeace International’s intention to bring an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the company in a Dutch Court. After Energy Transfer declined to accept liability on multiple occasions (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against Energy Transfer. The case was officially registered in the docket of the Court of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace International seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of Energy Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace organisations in the US. The next hearing in the Court of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.
Media contact:
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
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Climate Change
Cheniere Energy Received $370 Million IRS Windfall for Using LNG as ‘Alternative’ Fuel
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