A blunt new Oxfam report called Carbon Inequality Kills shows how global temperature rises caused by “the world’s super-rich 1%” are “risking the lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty and precarity”.
Fifty of the richest billionaires on the planet emit more carbon through their investments, private jets and superyachts in just an hour and a half, the British NGO said, than the average person in their entire lifetime, according to new data published at the end of October 2024.
Dirty investments and “toys” are a “direct threat”
“The super-rich are treating our planet like their personal playground, setting it ablaze for pleasure and profit. Their dirty investments and luxury toys —private jets and yachts— aren’t just symbols of excess; they’re a direct threat to people and the planet,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.
The new report comes in advance of COP29, the latest global climate summit set to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan. As temperatures beating all previous records are regularly registered around the world, and in the wake of recent violent storms and flooding in both the US and Europe, concerns about international climate commitments are growing. Many bodies are questioning whether current targets are fit for purpose and enough to keep the worst impacts of climate change at bay.
2.6 million years worth of consumption
Against that backdrop, Oxfam’s research has illuminated the debate in terms of a stark timeline. It now shows that “if global emissions continue at the current rate, the carbon budget to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C will run out in approximately four years. However, if everyone’s emissions matched those of the richest 1 percent, this budget would be depleted in less than five months.”
In fact, the NGO goes further: “If everyone emitted as much carbon as the private jets and yachts of the average billionaire in this study, the carbon budget would be exhausted in merely two days.” Putting it the other way round, Oxfam said each billionaire’s investment emissions represent “2.6 million years of consumption emissions by someone in the poorest 50% of the world.”
Planes and yachts are huge emitters – even on standby
Going into detail, only 2–4% of the world’s population flying internationally and just 1% of people are responsible for a colossal 50% of all plane emissions. In contrast, the 50 billionaires scrutinised “took 184 flights in a single year, spending 425 hours airborne, producing as much carbon as the average person would in 300 years. Their yachts compounded this impact, emitting as much carbon as the average person would in 860 years.”
Even a superyacht on standby is a huge polluter, Oxfam points out: “One superyacht, kept on permanent standby, can generate around 7,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.” The yacht’s average annual carbon footprint, estimated at 5,672 tonnes, “is equivalent to 860 years of emissions for the average person globally and 5,610 times the average of someone in the global poorest 50%.”
Billionaires could raise funds to meet green transition shortfall
The report was not shy in naming and shaming either. Jeff Bezos, The Walton family (of Walmart fame), Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett were all picked out for polluting lifestyles.
And contrary to popular claims that wealth “trickles down” through society, creating benefits for all, Oxfam’s research reveals that “the emissions of the world’s super-rich 1% are causing economic losses of trillions of dollars; contributing to huge crop losses; and leading to millions of excess deaths.”
Calling for action to “curb the emissions of the super-rich”, Oxfam said it is time to “make rich polluters pay” through tax reforms, regulatory change and societal restructuring, that could raise least $1.7 trillion annually from millionaires and billionaires, with an additional tax on polluting investments to bring in another $100 billion – funds that could support and accelerate the green transition, particularly in the global South, perhaps even helping to “meet the funding shortfall necessary to keep global temperature rises under 1.5°C by 2030.”
