{"id":38183,"date":"2025-11-12T19:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/?p=38183"},"modified":"2025-11-12T19:01:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:01:21","slug":"billions-for-climate-are-hidden-in-surprising-places-new-european-commission-study-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/2025\/11\/12\/billions-for-climate-are-hidden-in-surprising-places-new-european-commission-study-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Billions for climate are hidden in surprising places: This is what a new study by the European Commission has revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The enormous, seemingly insurmountable costs of transitioning to a climate-neutral world represent one of the greatest challenges of our time. According to the financial plans of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change campaign (UNFCCC) Race to Zero will require up to $125 trillion to achieve this goal by 2050. This astronomical sum creates a sense of helplessness and presents us with a global challenge that requires innovative sources of financing, including direct taxation of the industries responsible for the crisis.<\/p>\n

Recent in-depth study<\/span><\/a> But a study by the European Commission has revealed some surprising and counterintuitive ways to raise these funds. It turns out that the answer doesn\u2019t necessarily lie in complex global agreements, but in more targeted strategies. This article brings together the key findings from the report, showing how small groups of countries, old legal clauses and even tackling plastic pollution are central to the future of climate finance.<\/p>\n

To achieve big goals in climate finance, start small<\/h3>\n

One of the report\u2019s most surprising conclusions is that \u201eplurilateral\u201c approaches \u2013 coalitions of willing countries \u2013 are seen as \u201emost feasible and promising\u201c for introducing new climate taxes and levies. This finding is in direct contrast to the common assumption that the ideal is global, almost universal agreements involving all countries in the world.<\/p>\n

A message<\/span><\/a> This approach is very clearly justified:<\/p>\n

Plurilateral implementation of each instrument is considered the most feasible and promising, as it is more likely to be agreed quickly by a critical mass of countries and lead to ambitious outcomes, \u2026 as opposed to a global agreement, which tends to be a watered-down compromise, insufficient to achieve the objectives and potentially blocking further negotiations\u2026<\/p>\n

The significance of this finding is enormous. Global agreements are often \u201ewatered down\u201c because they have to find the lowest common denominator acceptable to nearly 200 countries, which inevitably stifles ambition. The report suggests that progress does not have to wait for every single country to agree. Instead, smaller, more ambitious groups of states can take the lead, create workable models, show the way for others, and avoid the risk of blocking further negotiations.<\/p>\n

The numbers are bigger than you can imagine.<\/h3>\n

While the political hurdles to implementing new international levies are high, the potential financial benefits for climate action are enormous. The report analyses several instruments whose revenue-generating potential shows that the necessary funds can be raised \u2013 often directly from the sectors that contribute most to the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the estimated annual revenues:<\/p>\n