This weekend, G20 leaders have an opportunity to support a simple idea that would finally redistribute some of the much talked-about benefits of globalization to the rest of the world – to fight global poverty and climate change.

Last week, German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy wedded themselves to the idea of the Robin Hood Tax, writing a letter to Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper to put discussion of the tax on the agenda at this weekend’s meetings.

The idea is to impose a tiny tax of 0.05 per cent on all financial transactions on the stock market and futures markets. For the most part, it would target the speculative activity of day traders who make hundreds of thousands of deals a day using computer algorithms. Astonishingly, at just 0.05 percent, this tax could generate hundreds of billion dollars, several times the amount donor countries contribute to global aid budgets.

To date, Harper has dismissed the idea of a “bank tax” (not a Robin Hood Tax or financial transaction tax), largely on the grounds that Canadian banks (like those in India, Brazil, China, and South Korea) didn’t have the same financial meltdown in other countries.

This may be the case. But he is missing the point. This is more than just a financial crisis. It is an economic crisis.

In Canada, 500,000 people lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector alone. This country has a mounting deficit. Health care and education are feeling the strains of public finance. Our aid budget has flatlined.  And we are one of the strongest G20 economies.

In the majority of countries – the US, Eastern and Southern Europe and many countries in the Global South - things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better. Under the pressure of growing debts and deficits in countries, Germany, the UK, Greece and many other countries are putting in place austerity measures that will cut back public funding for health care and education, cut or freeze public sector wages, and pensions.  It is also likely to significantly slow down global growth. A double dip recession seems just around the corner, with the new threats of deflation and debt default now threatening many countries in the North.

To counter this, what the world needs instead is further stimulus in green jobs and renewable technology, to invest in global poverty and fight climate change.

At a time when the world is short on resources (and frankly good ideas), the Robin Hood Tax could help generate enough revenue to help significantly kick-start a process to fight global poverty and climate change.

It is such a simple and significant idea, you would be a fool not to implement it. Let’s see how many fools there are this weekend.