Fossil fuel companies and their shareholders and owners of superyachts and private jets should have to pay into a fund for flood defences and home insulation, according to aprivate member’s billto be launched on Thursday.
The bill is part of a broader movement by campaigners to “make polluters pay”, demanding that oil and gas companies, and those who benefit from fossil fuels, should take on more of the direct responsibility for tackling the climate crisis, rather than funding such measures from general taxation.
As well as targeting oil and gas companies, the bill proposes ending subsidies for such businesses, taxing shareholders in receipt of dividends and capital gains on heavily polluting assets and companies whose operations have an impact on nature, and taxing the users and operators of luxury forms of travel including superyachts and private jets.
Richard Burgon, the Labour MP who has tabled the bill in parliament, said: “Fossil fuel giants have driven us to the cliff edge of climate catastrophe. They’ve made obscene profits while millions suffer the consequences. It’s only right that those most responsible for the crisis fund the urgent climate action needed, both at home and abroad.”
The move comes amid growing concerns over anet zero backlash, partly fuelled by Reform UK, which had record success in local elections and is riding high in political opinion polls. Reform has repeatedly taken aim at net zero policies, claiming that they are paid for by people on lower incomes.
Reform’s success hasled to questions over how to pay for the shift to a low-carbon economy. Keir Starmer, speaking in parliament on Wednesday, accused Reform of being “anti-jobs, anti-growth, anti-business and anti-investment”.
The bill, formally known as the climate finance fund (fossil fuels and pollution) bill, has almost no chance of becoming law, but is aimed at kickstarting a campaign inside and outside parliament to gather support for measures tomake polluters pay.
Polling by More in Common, commissioned by the campaign group Global Witness, indicates that such a campaign could have resonance with voters, including those intending to vote for Reform. It found that two-thirds of UK adults were worried about increasing damages from extreme weather and other effects of the climate crisis, such as sea level rise and crop failure, and that a majority of people who said they would vote Reform if a general election were held tomorrow thought that oil and gas companies should be held responsible for repairing the damage caused by global heating.
Seven in 10 Reform-leaning voters supported higher taxes on oil and gas companies and other high-emitting businesses.
Flossie Boyd, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, said: “Despite Reform leaders’ vocal opposition to climate action, the poll reveals that most Reform-leaning voters are worried about climate change, and a huge proportion want to see the firms and individuals most responsible for it taxed more.
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“Politicians who want to protect communities and win over voters should take notice – we need investment to prepare for climate risks like flooding and storms, and we need the costs to be borne by big polluters raking in billions.”
Louise Hutchins, the campaigns director at Stamp Out Poverty, said: “There’s huge public support for making big polluters pay up for the climate damage they’ve caused. The government has big decisions ahead about climate funding, at home and abroad. When five oil and gas corporations made over $100bn [£75bn] in profit in 2024, it’s time ministers started looking to those responsible.”