Who should foot the climate finance bill – from loss and damage funds to new funding targets – has become an enduring controversy at recent COPs.

Experts have said that at least $1 trillion (€948 billion) needs to flow to developing nations by 2030 and a new climate finance goal known as the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) hangs in the balance in Baku.

Rich countries are calling for the pool of contributors to be widened. As developing nations deal with the growing frequency and scale of climate disasters, the urgency for these funds increases.

There are big gaps that rich nations will need to fill with innovative forms of finance. From levies on high carbon activities to wealth taxes, what are some of the alternative ideas on the table for raising this cash?

Simple solutions or difficult diplomacy?

A study published by civil society group Oil Change International in September found that rich countries could raise five times the money developing nations are demanding in climate finance with a series of what it calls “simple measures”.

According to the study, a combination of wealth and corporate taxes, taxes on fossil fuel extraction and a crackdown on subsidies could generate $5 trillion (€4.7 trillion) a year – five times what developing nations say they need.

Stopping fossil fuel subsidies alone could free up $270 billion (€256 billion) in rich countries and a tax on fossil fuel extraction could raise $160 billion (€152billion). A frequent flyer levy could total $81 billion (€77 billion) a year from the rich world and increasing wealth taxes on multimillionaires and billionaires would raise a staggering $2.56 trillion (€2.43 trillion). In total, the list of measures it proposes would raise $5.3 trillion (€5.02 trillion) a year.

Some of these options are likely to be easier to implement than others. While adding a levy for frequent fliers doesn’t seem that controversial, money talks and strong opposition from billionaires could stop a wealth tax in its tracks.

Another proposal, redistributing 20 per cent of public military spending to raise $260 billion (€246 billion), could also prove tricky in a world of growing geopolitical instability.

Could a billionaire tax help pay the climate finance bill?

In July, a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Rio agreed to a “dialogue on fair and progressive taxation, including of ultra-high-net-worth individuals”. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is hoping to progress talks on this potential billionaire tax at the G20 meeting this week.

The baseline proposal from the finance ministers of Brazil, Germany, Spain and South Africa earlier this year recommended a 2 per cent tax on roughly 3,000 individuals with a net worth of more than $1 billion (€946 million). This would raise around €230 billion a year to fight poverty, inequality – and the climate crisis.

It has broad public support in G20 nations with an Ipsos poll from June showing that 70 per cent of people back the idea that wealthy people should pay higher income tax rates. But as G20 leaders meet in Brazil this week, there are reports that negotiators from Argentina’s new right-wing government are trying to undo progress made on this agreement.

“There is huge popular support in the G20 countries for a tax on the super-rich and it is important that the European countries in the G20 rally behind the Brazillian President to protect the unprecedented agreement on taxing extreme wealth achieved by the finance ministers in July,” says Kate Blagojevic, associate director of Europe campaigns at 350.org.

“It makes common sense to tax mega polluters and the mega-rich to ensure that we have the money needed for climate action at home and globally, which can prevent and repair damage from extreme weather like we have seen in Spain and in Central America over the last few weeks.”

Other countries have not been keen to criticise the proposal in public but many fear that announcing such a tax would cause these ultra-wealthy individuals to flee to nations with more attractive tax policies.

Spain’s economy minister Carlos Cuerpo urged countries on Monday before the G20 meeting to “be brave” and “do things that you are convinced are right”.

Could taxing big oil help pay the climate finance bill?

A small tax on just seven of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies would grow the UN’s Loss and Damage fund by more than 2,000 per cent, according to a new analysis published today by Greenpeace International and Stamp Out Poverty.

It says that introducing what it calls a Climate Damages Tax across OECD countries could play an essential role in financing climate action. This is described as a fossil fuel extraction charge applied to the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of each tonne of coal, barrel of oil or cubic metre of gas produced.

A tax starting at $5 (€4.74) – and increasing year-on-year – per tonne of carbon emissions based on the volumes of oil and gas extracted by each company would raise an estimated $900 billion (€853 billion) by 2030, it finds. The two groups say this money would support governments and communities around the world as they face growing climate impacts.

“Who should pay? This is fundamentally an issue of climate justice and it is time to shift the financial burden for the climate crisis from its victims to the polluters behind it,” says Abdoulaye Diallo, co-head of Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign.

Diallo adds that the analysis lays bare the scale of the challenge posed by the requirement for loss and damage funding “and the urgent need for innovative solutions to raise the funds to meet it”.

Could taxing frequent fliers help Europe raise climate finance funds?

In Europe, a tax on frequent fliers could raise €64 billion and slash emissions by a fifth, according to a report from environmental campaign groups Stay Grounded and the New Economics Foundation (NEF) published in October.

Currently, regardless of how many times a year you fly, you pay the same amount of aviation tax. But the report proposes an increasing level of tax for each flight a person takes in a year.

It would be added to all trips departing from the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK, excluding the first two journeys. There would also be a surcharge on the most polluting medium and long-haul flights as well as business and first-class seats.

For the first and second flights taken in a year, a €50 surcharge would be applied to medium-haul and €100 to long-haul, business and first-class flights. For the third and fourth flights, a €50 levy would be added to every ticket plus an additional €50 surcharge for medium-haul and €100 for longer distances and comfort classes.

For fifth and sixth flights, the levy would rise to €100 per flight, plus the additional surcharges. For seventh and eighth flights the levy would be €200, rising to €400 for every flight thereafter.

In a way, this is also a kind of wealth tax. Five per cent of households earning over €100,000 take three or more return flights a year versus just 5 per cent of households earning less than €20,000.

A portion of these funds, according to senior researcher at NEF Sebastian Mang, should be ringfenced for the EU’s contribution to lower and middle-income countries dealing with the sharp end of the climate crisis.

The latest in targeted killings of senior Hezbollah officials came as Lebanese officials considered a United States-led cease-fire proposal. Israel also bombed several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has long been headquartered, after warning people to evacuate.

Mohammed Afif, the head of media relations for Hezbollah, was killed in a strike on the Arab socialist Baath party’s office in central Beirut, according to a Hezbollah official who was not authorized to brief reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Afif had been especially visible after all-out war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah in September and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike. Last month, Afif hastily wrapped up a press conference in Beirut ahead of Israeli strikes.

There was no Israeli evacuation warning before the strike in central Beirut. An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw four bodies and four wounded people, but there was no official word on the toll. People could be seen fleeing. There was no comment from the Israeli military.

“I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,” said Suheil Halabi, a witness. “I was startled, honestly. This is the first time I experience it so close.”

The last Israeli strike in central Beirut was on Oct. 10, when 22 people were killed in two locations.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel the day after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack ignited the war in Gaza. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Lebanon and the conflict steadily escalated, erupting into war in September. Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on Oct. 1.

Hezbollah has continued to fire dozens of projectiles into Israel daily and has expanded their range to central Israel. The attacks have killed at least 76 people, including 31 soldiers, and caused some 60,000 people to flee in the north. A rocket barrage on the northern city of Haifa on Saturday damaged a synagogue and wounded two civilians.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and over 1.2 million driven from their homes. It is not known how many of the dead are Hezbollah fighters.

Lebanon’s army, largely on the sidelines, said an Israeli strike on Sunday hit a military centre in southeastern Al-Mari, killing a soldier and wounding three others. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Panellets are bite-sized balls of marzipan that can be covered with sliced pine nuts or diced almonds before they are popped in the oven.

Similar to the Day of the Dead in Mexico, these little delicacies are usually cooked in tribute to lost loved ones, when families visit cemeteries on All Saints’ Day (1 November).

It has also become a Catalonian tradition for marking the change of season, by enjoying the food and wines that are in harvest.

This includes eating castanyes (hot roasted chestnuts), drinking muscadel (a sweet dessert wine) and foraging mushrooms in the woods.

Passed down through generations

Making panellets is seen as a family tradition – something you do with your mother or father at home then passing on the knowledge to your children someday.

To look at, these small, button-sized nibbles appear an easy thing to make. However, to find out for real, I attended La Patente cooking school in Barcelona to learn from a professional, Mayera Armas.

In a visit organised by Barcelona-based airline Vueling to promote Catalan culture, Armas took a group of journalists through their paces in the kitchen.

As someone who struggles to boil an egg at the best of times, I decided to bring a secret weapon: My son Jack Keeley. He’s a keen cook who has made panellets before, so knew what he was doing.

He also saved my blushes, especially among some stiff competition from colleagues from France and Italy.

Getting the recipe right

To start off, you mix water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil for about five minutes, so it becomes a sweet syrup.

Then you add almond powder in a bowl and mix well.

After this, you must add egg whites and yolks from separate bowls.

Next comes the most important part: kneading the mix – but it cannot be too dry. If you find that it is, just add more egg or some water.

By this stage – if you have kneaded the mixture correctly – you should have a long marzipan sausage.

Now comes the moment to get out a huge knife and the scales: the marzipan must be cut into tiny 20 gramme pieces and then rolled into balls.

Size matters here – these are bite-size delicacies, so if they are any bigger, you will run out of ingredients to make enough panellets to go round. They’re also typically puddings you bring to parties, so you don’t want to be left short.

The next part involves coating the marzipan with your covering of choice. Traditionally, that would be pine nuts or diced almonds.

Sweet dreams are made of marzipan

The nut mix should be kneaded into the marzipan using some beaten egg white. The best way to do this is to wet your hands so that you can make them look like Ferrero Rocher chocolates, except without the trademark chocolate, of course. Each panellet should be well covered.

Alternatively, if you prefer a sharper taste, you can try pushing crystalised cherries into the centre of each panellet, but these must also be coated in beaten egg white.

Another option could be coating the delicacy with salted chocolate and/or orange.

Quince jam, a traditional Spanish produce that comes to harvest during autumn time, is another popular flavouring.

Whatever your tastes, panellets are for those with a pretty sweet tooth.

Finally, they should be popped into the oven for about ten minutes at about 200-220 degrees Celsius. Once you have taken them out, don’t sink your teeth in straight away! If you leave them for a day or two, they taste much better.

Armas, who is originally from Venezuela but moved to Barcelona 20 years ago, said panellets were a defining autumn dish in Catalonia.

“Panellets are very important because it is the day you remember your relatives who have died. So, you get together with your family or friends and you go to the cemetery,” Armas tells Euronews Culture.

“It is also the start of autumn. You can be eating panellets for two weeks and then they are gone.”

She said the ingredients matter because they are native to Catalonia.

“The almond trees should be flowering by now and it should be made with fresh almonds. Or it can be made with pine nuts. You need to make it with the fresh products that you have.”

Over the years, immigration to Catalonia from outside Spain has influenced the way panellets are made.

“Almond and pine nuts are the most traditional ones, but with immigration you get chocolate. But you also get quince [jam], which is typical here and it is like an autumn fruit,” she said.

“This has nothing to do with Halloween, which is American. I hope that we keep this tradition.”

Armas also stressed that panellets could not be consumed without a “little” glass of muscadel. This should typically be done by tilting a porrón – or wine jar – and swallowing it in one.

Dear reader, your author tried this – but the wine ended up all over his apron instead of down his throat.

Meanwhile, his teenage son drank the muscadel down in one.

The shame of it.