It would affect just 3,000 of the super-rich and would raise around $250 billion.
The Brazilian proposal, which will be put before the G20 summit in Rio in November (and already supported by South Africa, Germany and Spain, says The Guardian), calls for a 2 percent global tax on the wealth of the world’s billionaires. Though it would affect just 3,000 people, it would raise around $250bn (£195bn) and could be put towards global climate funds or to poverty alleviation.
According to calculations by Oxfam, the wealth of billionaires has been growing so fast in recent years that maintaining it at a constant level would have required an annual tax of 12.8 percent. So, the argument goes, 2 percent is hardly radical or even particularly damaging to the world's super-rich. Furthermore, they produces, on average, a million times more carbon dioxide than the average global citizen in the bottom 90 percent.
Experts say a global agreement is needed to avoid some countries becoming tax havens for the ultra-wealthy, reports EuroNews.
If the world's richest nations are having to pay into the finance pot for climate support to those nations who did not cause the problem in the first place, shouldn't the world's super-rich make their contribution too?
US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has already said that there is no need for it. It will be interesting to see how the argument plays out in the run up to the G20 and, then, during the conference.
So, here’s the test the G20 governments face: 3,000 versus 8 billion. Do their loyalties lie with 0.00004 percent of the world’s population, or with the rest?