African leaders have proposed a global carbon tax regime in a joint declaration on Wednesday.
The Nairobi Declaration capped the three-day Africa Climate Summit in Kenya’s capital.
The document, released on Wednesday, demanded that major polluters commit more resources to help poorer nations.
African heads of state said they will use it as the basis of their negotiating position at November’s COP28 summit.
The African Climate Summit was dominated by discussions on how to mobilize financing to adapt to increasingly extreme weather, conserve natural resources, and develop renewable energy.
Africa is among the most vulnerable continents to the impact of climate change, but according to researchers, it only receives about 12% of the nearly $300bn (£240bn) in annual financing it needs to cope.
The Nairobi Declaration urged world leaders “to rally behind the proposal for a global carbon taxation regime including a carbon tax on fossil fuel trade, maritime transport and aviation, that may also be augmented by a global financial transaction tax”.
It said such measures would ensure large-scale financing for climate-related investments and insulate the issue of tax rises from geopolitical and domestic political pressures.
Around two dozen countries currently impose taxes on carbon, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but the idea of a global carbon tax regime has failed to gain much traction.