"Stop Making a Killing at the Planet's Expense": Climate Advocates Call for Fossil Fuel Companies to Foot Australia Fires Bill

Climate advocates are calling on fossil fuel companies to pay for the damage caused by Australia’s unprecedented bushfires rather than that country’s taxpayers forking over an additional $2 billion for those affected by the crisis.

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“Regular Australians should not be forced to pay while fossil fuel producers are being let off scot-free,” the Australia Institute’s deputy director Ebony Bennett said in a statement. 

“It’s disappointing that the Australian community will be left to pick up the tab for a climate-fueled disaster,” she added.

Bennett, whose group is pushing for the Australian government to impose a “modest levy” on fossil fuel producing companies to cover the cost of bushfire recovery and first introduced the proposal in December, added that taxing those responsible for the climate crisis to provide the funds for disaster mitigation would “shift the economic burden of these disasters from regular Australians to the coal and gas companies that are fueling the climate crisis.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Monday that the government would obtain the additional $2 billion from the country’s projected $5 billion surplus for the year. 

“The surplus is of no focus for me,” said Morrison, whose response to the fires has been seen as, at best, insufficient by critics.