- Person in the richest 0.1 percent has contributed
nearly 400 times more to extreme heatwaves than someone in
the poorest half of humanity. - Oxfam’s
research shows that while the super-rich are responsible for
a disproportionate share of carbon pollution, it is ordinary
people who bear the brunt of the resulting floods, fires and
famine. - Oxfam’s new “Destroy & Rebuild
Index” exposes how super-rich investors backing fossil fuels
and other high-polluting industries are also profiting from
disaster preparedness and clean-up. - Oxfam
urges governments to make rich polluters pay and end climate
profiteering.
The world’s richest 0.1
percent (8 million people) produces more carbon pollution
than the world’s poorest 3.5 billion people combined,
reveals new Oxfam analysis. Published ahead of the UN
climate summit (COP31) in Türkiye, the report exposes how
the world’s super-rich are driving climate breakdown
through their outsized emissions, while shielding themselves
from the consequences and, increasingly, profiting from the
destruction.
A person in the richest 0.1 percent has
contributed nearly 400 times more to today’s extreme
heatwaves than someone in the poorest 50 percent.
Collectively, this small group of people produces over three
times more carbon pollution than the entire population of
Sub-Saharan Africa (1.3 billion people).
“The climate
crisis is often described as a shared human challenge. It is
not. Those who have done the least to cause it are losing
their homes, their harvests and, increasingly, their lives.
Meanwhile, the super-rich can buy their way out of danger –
by retreating to high-tech underground survival bunkers,
hiring private firefighting crews, and securing private
insurance – and are actively profiting from the consequences
of their pollution. This is not a tragedy of shared fate; it
is a crime of extreme inequality,” said Oxfam International
Executive Director Amitabh Behar.
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Combining carbon
inequality data with cutting-edge climate attribution
models, Oxfam has found that:
- The richest 1
percent are responsible for 20 percent of global warming
since 1990 – 100 times more, per person, than someone in the
poorest half of humanity. - Just one year of emissions
by the richest 1 percent will cause 1.9 million excess
heat-related deaths. 78 percent of these deaths will occur
in low- and lower-middle-income countries, despite these
countries being responsible for 8 percent of global
emissions. - The emissions of the richest 1 percent
will cause nearly $53 trillion in damage by
2050.
Used exclusively by the super-rich,
private aviation remains one of the clearest examples of
extreme carbon inequality. New analysis by Oxfam of private
jet tracking data finds that:
- Combined, private
jets emit more carbon pollution in two seconds than someone
in the poorest half of humanity emits in a
year.
While the super-rich are responsible for a
disproportionate share of carbon pollution, it is ordinary
people who bear the brunt of the resulting floods, fires and
famine.
“Eight million people produce more carbon
pollution than three and a half billion. In places like
Tonga and Solomon Islands, families who did the least to
cause this crisis are paying for it first, rebuilding after
floods and droughts they had no hand in causing. That
isn’t bad luck. It follows from who decides where
emissions get cut and who pays. At COP31, New Zealand has a
seat in that room. It should use it to back taxes on extreme
wealth and fossil fuel profits, and push for climate finance
that comes as grants, not more debt.” said Oxfam Aotearoa
Executive Director Jason Myers.
The super-rich buy
safety through private insurance and homes in safer, cooler
places. For everyone else, climate disasters mean destroyed
homes and crops, depleted savings, and lost livelihoods.
This leaves people even more exposed when the next disaster
hits, deepening the inequality that made them far more
vulnerable to climate disasters in the first place. By 2050,
as many as 1 billion people (around 10 percent of the
world’s population) could be displaced by the climate
crisis. Most of those displaced will be in the Global
South.
Oxfam’s new Destroy & Rebuild
Index identifies 217 corporations profiting from
industries that fuel climate breakdown as well as disaster
preparedness, recovery and reconstruction.
BlackRock
and Vanguard are invested in 92 percent of the corporations
in the index. Their combined investments total more than $1
trillion.
The report also warns that climate disasters
are increasingly exploited to push policies that deepen
inequality, including the privatization of climate action
and public services, land grabs, deregulation and tax breaks
benefiting the super-rich. The result is a vicious cycle of
injustice: deaths from flooding are seven times higher in
more unequal countries.
“The ultra-rich are setting
the planet on fire and then charging the rest of us for the
extinguishers,” said Behar. “They profit from the pollution.
They profit from the disaster. And they profit again from
the clean-up.” said Behar.
Oxfam is calling on
governments meeting at COP31 to:
- Make rich
polluters pay to significantly and rapidly curb their carbon
emissions, including through permanent wealth and income
taxes, a permanent tax on fossil fuel corporations, and
punitive taxes on high-emitting luxury items like private
jets. - Substantially increase climate finance for the
Global South, prioritizing public, grant-based finance
rather than loans that deepen debt. The amount for
adaptation should be tripled by 2035. - Radically
reduce inequality within and between countries, including
through climate-resilient public infrastructure and public
services. - End profiteering from climate disasters.
Governments need to curb corporate power in emergency
response, reconstruction, and food systems during
disasters.
Notes:
Oxfam’s
analysis finds that 1.18 million or 78 percent of excess
deaths due to heat will occur in low- and
lower-middle-income countries:
https://www.oxfam.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Carbon-Inequality-Kills.pdf
Since
1990, carbon emissions from the richest 1 percent have
caused global economic output to drop by $2.9 trillion. By
2050, this will rise to $52.6 trillion, equivalent to a 0.5
percent loss of global cumulative GDP over that period.
The heaviest economic toll will fall on the countries least
responsible for climate change.
According to the International
Organization for Migration, as many as 1 billion people
could be displaced by the climate crisis by 2050. The
frequency and intensity of these events is rising as a
direct result of climate
change.
