The World Council of Churches (WCC) joined global leaders, economists, and faith-based organisations at the HighLevel Dialogue on Tax Justice and Solidarity convened by the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences to call for urgent reforms in the global tax system.

The event, held at Casina Pio IV, Vatican City, brought together influential voices – including president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, president Pedro Sánchez of Spain, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima – to address how tax justice can promote global equity and sustainability.

Discussions highlighted the moral imperative of fair taxation in addressing economic inequality, climate change, and the debt burdens on the world’s most vulnerable nations. In her remarks, Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, stressed the urgent need to tackle tax injustice as a contributor to climate and social inequality.

“The scandalous levels of inequality we see today are also destabilising efforts to fight runaway climate change. The wealthiest 10% of the world is responsible for nearly half of global carbon emissions. Billionaire lifestyles – private jets, yachts – produce thousands of times the emissions of the average person. However, their carbon footprint is over a million times higher when we include emissions from their investments. Tax justice must be part of the solution to the climate crisis.”

Presidents Lula da Silva and Pedro Sánchez reinforced the necessity for a new financial architecture, which includes a UN Tax Convention to curb corporate tax avoidance and ensure fair taxation where profits are generated. The Rt Hon Aminata Touré, former prime minister of Senegal, emphasised that Africa lost $1 trillion in 2022 due to illicit financial flows – funds that could have been used to support healthcare, education, and climate adaptation efforts.

(WCC)