A sustainable global universal basic income can be done. Here is how

We have developed a model that can provide a global UBI through a ‘cap and share’ scheme for fossil fuels that also tackles climate change. 

In September, Pope Francis attended the World Meeting of Popular Movements, an initiative he launched 10 years ago as a platform for grassroots organisations to come together and address the “economy of exclusion and inequality”. During his speech at the event, the head of the Catholic Church renewed his call for a global universal basic income (UBI), saying that implementing such a measure would not only be a reflection of compassion but also “strict justice”.

Pope Francis has joined a growing international movement advocating for income redistribution through a scheme of unconditional monthly cash payments to every individual to cover their basic needs and provide economic security as a fundamental human right.

A global UBI is not just a question of poverty relief. It’s also a question of social justice. Centuries of exploitation and overextraction of resources have concentrated wealth in the Global North, and as a result, most Global South countries lack the tax base and fiscal firepower to fund their own national UBIs. A global UBI would not only end world poverty, but also represent a necessary and equitable redistribution of wealth from north to south.

Critics of the movement have often pointed to the significant cost that implementing UBI could incur for governments. So is there a sustainable way to pay for it?

At Equal Right, a nonprofit that also advocates for UBI, we have developed detailed modelling laid out in our paper “Climate Justice Without Borders”. It shows that a charge of $135 per tonne on the global extraction of fossil fuels could raise as much as $5 trillion