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Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average produce more carbon in just 90 minutes than the average person does in their entire lifetime, a new Oxfam report reveals.
Here in Australia, one hour of emissions from Australian billionaires’ super yachts and private jets equals what an average Australian emits in an entire year.
The first-of-its-kind study, “Carbon Inequality Kills,” tracks the emissions from private jets, yachts and polluting investments and details how the super-rich are fueling inequality, hunger and death across the world. The report comes ahead of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, amidst growing fears that climate breakdown is accelerating, driven largely by the emissions of the richest people.
Oxfam analysis also found that:
- An average Australian billionaire has taken 73 flights in a year and travelled distances that would circumnavigate the world 6 times.
- Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer emits over 5000 tons of carbon pollution per year from his super-yacht transport alone.
- Greta Packer, whose family became ultra wealthy from Casinos, emits nearly 8450 tons of carbon from her super-yacht travel per year.
If the world continues its current emissions, the carbon budget (the amount of CO2 that can still be added to the atmosphere without causing global temperatures to rise above 1.5°C) will be depleted in about four years. However, if everyone’s emissions matched those of the richest 1 percent, the carbon budget would be used up in under five months. And if everyone started emitting at the same rate as the average billionaire in Oxfam’s study, it would be gone in less than two days.
“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 Australia Policy and Advocacy Lead, Josie Lee.
“Oxfam’s research makes it painfully clear: the extreme emissions of the richest are fueling inequality, hunger and—make no mistake—death. It’s not just unfair that their reckless pollution and unbridled greed is fueling the very crisis threatening our collective future—it’s lethal. And it should be criminal,” said Ms Lee.
The report, the first-ever study to look at both the luxury transport and polluting investments of billionaires, presents detailed new evidence of how their outsized emissions are accelerating climate breakdown and wreaking havoc on lives and economies. The world’s poorest countries and communities have done the least to cause the climate crisis, yet they experience its most dangerous consequences.
Despite their egregious consumption emissions, the largest share of billionaires’ emissions comes from their investments in corporations where they hold strategic stakes. Nearly 40 percent of billionaire investments analysed in Oxfam’s research are in highly polluting industries: oil, mining, shipping and cement. On average, a billionaire’s investment portfolio is almost twice as polluting as an investment in the S&P 500. However, if they shifted their investments to a low-carbon-intensity investment fund, their investment emissions would be 13 times lower.
Oxfam’s report details three critical areas, providing national and regional breakdowns, where the emissions of the world’s richest 1 percent since 1990 are already having —and are projected to have— devastating consequences:
- Global inequality. The emissions of the richest 1 percent have caused global economic output to drop by Int. $2.9 trillion since 1990. The biggest impact will be in countries least responsible for climate breakdown. Low- and lower-middle-income countries will lose about 2.5 percent of their cumulative GDP between 1990 and 2050. Southern Asia, South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will lose 3 percent, 2.4 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively. High-income countries, on the other hand, will accrue economic gains.
- Hunger. The emissions of the richest 1 percent have caused crop losses that could have provided enough calories to feed 14.5 million people a year between 1990 and 2023. This will rise to 46 million people annually between 2023 and 2050, with Latin America and the Caribbean especially affected (9 million a year by 2050).
- Death. 78 percent of excess deaths due to heat through 2120 will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
“It’s become so tiring, to be resilient. It’s not something that I have chosen to be —it was necessary to survive. A child shouldn’t need to be strong. I just wanted to be safe, to play in the sand —but I was always fleeing when storms came. Counting dead bodies after a typhoon isn’t something any child should have to do. And whether we survive or not, the rich polluters don’t even care,” said Marinel Sumook Ubaldo, a young climate activist from the Philippines.
Rich countries have failed to keep their $100 billion climate finance promise, and heading into COP29, wealthy countries are trying to sidestep their responsibility to provide new climate finance that adequately addresses the climate financing needs of Global South countries. Oxfam warns that the cost of global warming will continue to rise unless the richest drastically reduce their emissions and provide a fair share of climate finance to support low-income countries.
Ahead of COP29, Oxfam calls on governments to:
- Reduce the emissions of the richest. Governments must introduce permanent income and wealth taxes on the top 1 percent, ban or heavily tax carbon-intensive luxury consumption —starting with private jets and superyachts— and regulate corporations and investors to drastically reduce their emissions. A wealth tax on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise at least $1.7 trillion annually. Here in Australia, it would raise $32 billion annually.
- Make rich polluters pay. Climate finance needs are enormous and escalating, especially in Global South countries that are withstanding the worst of climate impacts. Analysis by Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims, found a carbon levy in Australia would raise $100 billion in its first year. Part of this revenue should be used to support impacted countries and communities in our region and in Australia.
- Reimagine our economies. The current economic system, designed to accumulate wealth for the already rich through relentless extraction and consumption, has long undermined a truly sustainable and equitable future for all. Governments need to commit to ensuring that, both globally and at a national level, the incomes of the top 10 percent are no higher than the bottom 40 percent.
Oxfam’s research shows that that the richest 1 percent, made up of 77 million people including billionaires, millionaires and those earning $310,000 ($140,000 PPP) or more a year, accounted for 16 percent of all CO2 emissions in 2019.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, if invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency measures by 2030, billionaires’ wealth could cover the entire funding gap between what governments have pledged and what is needed to keep global warming below 1.5⁰C.
Oxfam’s analysis estimates the changes in economic output (GDP), changes in yields of major crops (it considers maize, wheat, and soy, which are among the most common crops globally) and excess deaths due to changes in temperatures that can be attributed to the emissions of the richest.
Rich countries continue to resist calls for climate reparations. We know the transition to a climate safe future will cost trillions a year. Climate activists are demanding the Global North providepublic finance to the Global South “as a down payment towards their climate debt” to the countries, people and communities of the Global South who are the least responsible for climate breakdown but are the most affected.[JR3] [JL4]
