‘Make Polluters Pay’, say Friends

'Quaker MP Ruth Cadbury and other MPs commended BYM on its climate and peace work in the first ever parliamentary debate on climate loss and damage this month.'

Quakers and other activists called for more international action on the loss and damage caused by climate breakdown last weekend. Friends across the country marked Make Polluters Pay Action Day on 23 September, demanding that fossil fuel companies pay for environmental damage.

The day was part of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM)’s long-term strategy to raise awareness of the issue, following last year’s agreement for a Loss and Damage Fund at COP27. Campaigners, including BYM, are now working to ensure the fund works for the communities impacted, and that the biggest polluters are paying up.

According to the Make Polluters Pay coalition, the finance should come in the form of grants, not loans, as the latter ‘would simply add to poorer countries’ debt’. The finance must also be paid for by the wealthiest and highest-emitting countries, corporations and individuals, it argues. Allocation should be ‘on the basis of need, as opposed to an arbitrary number’, either through the Green Climate Fund, or a new international loss and damage fund.

Earlier this year, Christian Aid said that a tax on wealthy Britons of just half of one per cent could more than meet the UK’s entire ‘fair share’ contribution to the fund.

Quaker MP Ruth Cadbury and other MPs commended BYM on its climate and peace work in the first ever parliamentary debate on climate loss and damage this month. In a debate on 5 September, she quoted Quaker faith & practice, saying: ‘We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will.’

BYM worked with other members of the Make Polluters Pay coalition to secure the debate and brief MPs on loss and damage.

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