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What are climate reparations?
Climate disasters disproportionately harm those least responsible for causing them. It’s harder to protect yourself and your family from a flood and to recover from it if you’re already poor, hungry and homeless or your country is already in debt to richer countries.
But a growing movement is demanding climate reparations — a call for those most responsible to stop causing the harm and start footing the bill and repairing the damage they’ve created.
Why should polluters pay?
Oil and gas giants like BP and Shell have known for decades about the climate breakdown their fossil fuels would cause. But they’ve always put profits above the interests of people and planet. Now, millions of innocent people are paying the price every year, both here and abroad.
As global temperatures breached the critical threshold of 1.5°C warming in 2024, five of the biggest oil and gas companies made over $100 billion [£75bn] in profits.
They are responsible. They have made trillions in profit. They should pay to fix the mess they’ve made.
How much will it cost?
Climate breakdown is already hitting people in the UK – costing each household around £3,000 a year through rising food prices and insurance costs. Our communities are increasingly battered by flooding, wildfires and other costly climate impacts.
And the crisis is much worse in poorer parts of the world. It’s estimated that by 2050, climate impacts will be causing around $30 trillion of loss and damage every year. That’s far more than it would cost to fix the climate or help communities protect themselves and mitigate the worst impacts!
Facts about climate loss and damage estimates / investment needed with link off to reports / news articles
Who’s involved in this network?
The Climate Reparations network is made up of dozens of grassroots community groups up and down the UK who are demanding that polluters stop polluting and start paying what they owe for the care and repair that people and the planet need.
This network is supported by Tipping Point UK which itself is part of the Make Polluters Pay coalition.
How will you make them pay?
Ultimately, through overwhelming public pressure on the Government demanding that polluting pay. There are lots of proposals for wealth tax, windfall taxes, fines on polluters that could generate the money needed for the care, repair and protection our communities need to thrive.
We’ll be working with communities up and down the UK to envision what they need to thrive and supporting them to make their demands for polluters to pay loud and clear!
How can we get involved
Visit our Get Involved page to find out more about organising for Climate Reparations in your community.
We’ve got a wide range of workshops, resources and support available.