Former world leaders seek $25bn levy on oil states’ revenues to pay for climate damage

The letter is being sent to the Cop28 president-designate, Sultan Al Jaber (pictured), who is also the head of the UAE’s national oil company, and to the G20 president, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. Photograph: Kamran Jebreili/AP

The bumper revenues of oil-producing states should be subject to a $25bn levy to help pay for the impact of climate disasters on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, a group of former world leaders and leading economists has said.

Seventy international figures led by the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown signed a letter calling for the measure before a crucial UN climate summit, Cop28, that begins in Dubai on Thursday. The signatories include 25 former prime ministers or presidents.