Oxfam delivers million-signature ‘Make Rich Polluters Pay’ petition to Brazil's climate minister at COP30

Today, Oxfam and activist partners at COP30 delivered over a million signatures of a petition demanding that the super-rich pay for climate damages to Brazil’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva. The petition is part of the ‘Make Rich Polluters Pay’ global civil society campaign, which calls on governments to tax those who hold outsized responsibility for driving carbon emissions.  

“Handing over this petition to Minister Marina Silva is a crucial step to demand that those who accelerated the climate crisis take responsibility and that resources actually reach those who suffer the most from climate change,” said climate activist Érica Monteiro, who is from the Itacoã Miri quilombo in Pará, Brazil. “Being here at COP30 means fighting to uplift the voices of traditional communities in decision-making spaces. We must ensure justice for populations like our quilombola people who have historically been made invisible, but who are on the frontlines of protecting the territories of the Amazon.” 

The petition was delivered in the Blue Zone by Viviana Santiago, Executive Director of Oxfam Brasil, as well as Monteiro and the other activists from the Make Rich Polluters Pay campaign: Grace Mali (Tuvalu), Hilda Nakabuye (Uganda), and Pavel Martiarena (Peru).  

The campaign’s most recent report, “Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster,” found that the richest 0.1% emit more carbon pollution in a day than someone from the poorest 50% emits in a year. The findings were cited by President Lula in his speech at the opening plenary of COP30. A key political solution proposed by the report is a progressive tax on the richest 1%, which could raise up to US$9 trillion to fund renewable energy and climate adaptation. 

“The super-rich are the main ones responsible for the climate crisis, so it is a matter of justice that they pay for it,” said Santiago. “We need this small elite that pollutes the most and has profited the most to finance a just transition and pay for the climate damages that are already happening in the most vulnerable countries. Minister Marina Silva has been a fundamental voice in placing this debate at the center of the negotiations."