It is claimed that tackling climate change is too expensive, or that the present state of the economy is too fragile to allow large scale public spending.  In fact there is substantial evidence that the amount of money held in offshore deposits alone would be more than enough to cover the cost. Whilst some of these funds are legal (although much is clearly not) we must ask why do governments allow it?  Is it to feed the pockets of the financiers and lawyers who work in the home grown 'havens' who control these spider networks such as The City of London and Delaware? No doubt it also increases money into these jurisdictions as well.

From the tax justice network
We estimate that the amount of funds held offshore by individuals is about $11.5 trillion – with a resulting annual loss of tax revenue on the income from these assets of about 250 billion dollars. This is five times what the World Bank estimated in 2002 was needed to address the UN Millenium Development Goal of halving world poverty by 2015. This much money could also pay to transform the world’s energy infrastructure to tackle climate change.

Also a considerable proportion of aid money for developing countries also finds its way into these havens.  This is surely a major obstacle to the Clean Development Mechanism as well.  Global Financial Integrity estimates for every $1 poor nations receive in foreign aid, an estimated $10 in dirty money flows illicitly abroad.