Richest 1% Emits More CO2 Than Poorest 66%, Report Finds

What's the story?

• An Oxfam report found that the wealthiest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%.
• At the same time, impoverished and vulnerable communities disproportionately bear the effects of climate change. The report was described as the most comprehensive study of global climate inequality.

The report

• The report demonstrates that 77 million people, all of whom earn more than $140,000 a year, accounted for 16% of all CO2 emissions in 2019. Oxfam refers to these individuals as a "polluter elite."
• Oxfam researchers found the amount of carbon released by the world's wealthiest people is enough to cause 1.3 million deaths due to extreme heat in the coming decades.
• The report says it would take 1,500 years for a person in the lower-earning 99% to produce as much carbon as the world's billionaires do in one year.

Human and environmental costs

• The U.N. found that developing countries account for 91% of climate change-related extreme weather deaths. Africa, home to roughly one-sixth of the global population and 33 of the U.N.'s least developed countries (LDCs), is responsible for only 4% of global emissions.
• Between 1990 and 2019, the emissions of the 1% were equivalent to the amount that would wipe out last year's entire harvest of EU corn, U.S. wheat, Bangladeshi rice, and Chinese soybeans.
• The carbon footprint of the 1% is 77 times higher than the highest level needed to keep global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees C.
• Chiara Liguori from Oxfam said:

"The super-rich are plundering and polluting the planet to the point of destruction and it is those who can least afford it who are paying the highest price."

Polluter tax?

• Oxfam supports 60% wealth and windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies to fund renewable energy projects. Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International's interim executive director, said:

"Not taxing wealth allows the richest to rob from us, ruin our planet and renege on democracy. Taxing extreme wealth transforms our chances to tackle both inequality and the climate crisis."

• Many polluting industries are adamantly opposed to the "polluter pays" tax. Between 2022 and 2023, the chemical industry spent over $130 million urging Congress to oppose the tax, which would force the industry to clean up some of its most polluted sites in the U.S.
• Nevertheless, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urged leaders of wealthy countries to use money from their fossil fuel profits to help LCDs facing adverse impacts of climate change. He said:

"The fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns. Pollutes must pay."

Should we make polluters pay?

-Jamie Epstein & Emma Kansiz