Sterling Stamp Duty To Fund Development Financing And Climate Change Research

EDM number 376 in 2006-07, proposed by Martin Salter on 30/11/2006.

That this House believes it is unacceptable that, in an age of such technological advance and wealth, tens of thousands of people continue to die from hunger, preventable illnesses and treatable diseases every month; acknowledges the Government's support for research into the scientific basis for, and economic impact of, climate change; welcomes the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for the provision of clean water, healthcare and education to the world's most impoverished people; recognises the leadership role played by the Government in securing an international commitment to a target of universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment by 2010; believes that the urgent provision of significant, additional and sustainable funding will be essential to prevent catastrophic climate change, meet and sustain the commitment to universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment, and attain the MDGs; notes the readiness of governments to introduce new and additional forms of development financing through intitiatives such as UNITAID and the IFF Immunisation; acknowledges recent advances in electronic trading and messaging that make a duty on sterling currency transactions possible and capable of producing a significant level of income at very low cost; and strongly urges HM Treasury to review the feasibility of a stamp duty of half of one hundredth of one per cent. (0.005 per cent.) on sterling currency transactions to generate more than £1 billion of extra revenue annually to improve the lives of the world's most deprived people and address the adverse consequences of climate change.

This motion has been signed by a total of 74 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.