Climate Finance: Debt, Tax and Human Rights

As the impacts of climate change intensify around the world, one question becomes increasingly urgent: who should pay for the climate crisis? Climate finance is one of the defining justice issues of our time. Yet fundamental questions remain unresolved: Who is responsible for financing climate action? How can we mobilize resources at the scale required? How can climate finance support a just transition while advancing human rights and reducing inequality? In this webinar, recorded during London Climate Action Week, leading experts from Oxfam, Greenpeace Africa, Climate Action Network International, and the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) explore these critical questions and challenge conventional approaches to climate finance. The discussion examines: The growing gap in adaptation finance and what it means for communities on the frontlines of climate change. The climate debt owed by the world's wealthiest individuals and corporations. Progressive taxation and taxes on extreme wealth as pathways to climate justice. Debt justice, climate reparations, and rights-based approaches to public finance. Why many market-led approaches risk deepening inequality rather than addressing it. Speakers Mariana Paoli (Oxfam) Ucizi Ngulube (Greenpeace Africa) Rebecca Thissen (Climate Action Network International) Peninnah Mbabazi (Center for Economic and Social Rights) Moderators Maria ROna Balsera (Center for Economic and Social Rights) Luke Holland (Center for Economic and Social Rights) Climate finance is about far more than money. It is about responsibility, power, equity, and human rights.