An analysis by Oxfam GB has suggested that the world’s richest 1% have already used up their fair share of the global carbon budget for 2025, just 10 days into the year.
In less than a week and a half, the consumption habits of an individual from this monied elite had already caused, on average, 2.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, the analysis showed. It would take someone from the poorest 50% of humanity three years to create the same amount of pollution.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is created whenever carbon-based fuels such as coal, gas and oil – used for most electricity generation, industrial processes, heating and transport – are burned. When it accumulates in the atmosphere it has an insulating effect, preventing heat reaching the Earth from the sun from being radiated back into space. The result of the increasing concentration of atmospheric CO2 has been a breakdown of climatic conditions that have been stable for 10,000 years.
Governments have pledged to limit global heating to 1.5C (2.7F) above preindustrial levels, but the world is far from hitting the targets needed to keep to this level.
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On Friday, figures from the EU’s Copernicus climate change service showed that 2024 was the first year to exceed the 1.5C figure. Rising temperatures have led to an emerging crisis of extreme weather events, from droughts to hurricanes to heatwaves, leading to increased food insecurity, wildlife habitat loss, disappearing glaciers, rising sea levels, and a host of other effects.
According to the analysis, the richest 1% – about 77 million people, including all those earning more than $140,000 (£114,000) a year – are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution each year as the poorest half of humanity.
But it is the poorest people who are suffering the most serious effects of climate breakdown, which are worse in tropical regions. They also have the fewest resources to mitigate the disastrous results of sudden climatic change, while the wealthiest 1% live climate-insulated, air-conditioned lives, mostly in the global north.
A joint investigation by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute in 2023 found that emissions from the 1% alone would be enough to cause the heat-related deaths of 1.3 million people over the coming decades.
Chiara Liguori, Oxfam GB’s senior climate justice policy adviser, said: “The future of our planet is hanging by a thread, yet the super-rich are being allowed to continue to squander humanity’s chances with their lavish lifestyles and polluting investments.
“Governments need to stop pandering to the richest polluters and instead make them pay their fair share for the havoc they’re wreaking on our planet. Leaders who fail to act are culpable in a crisis that threatens the lives of billions.”
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
