The wealthiest individuals worldwide only account for one percent of the total population. However, according to a new report, they have excessive carbon dioxide emissions that they were like burning our planet.
Super-Rich Persons Carbon Emissions
Based on the Oxfam report, although the wealthiest people are only one percent, their luxurious lifestyle is too much. They live in air-conditioned, climate-insulated lifestyles, and their emissions -5.9 billion tons of CO2 in 2019- cause much pain to the majority.
The study estimates that the emissions from the 1% alone would be sufficient to cause the deaths of 1.3 million people from heat-related causes over the next few decades. This is based on a "mortality cost" formula, which the US Environmental Protection Agency uses. It calculates 226 excess deaths globally for every million tonnes of carbon.
The cumulative emissions of the one percent wealthiest individuals from 1990 to 2019 were enough to destroy the previous year's harvests of Chinese soybeans, US wheat, EU corn, and Bangladeshi rice.
According to the research, the burden is disproportionately experienced by those who are poor, members of marginalized ethnic communities, migrants, women, and girls who work outside or live in dwellings that are susceptible to harsh weather.
These groups are more economically and physically vulnerable to natural disasters like heat waves, droughts, floods, and forest fires because they are less likely to have funds, insurance, or social protection. According to the UN, 91% of deaths linked to extreme weather occur in developing nations.
According to the analysis, it would take an individual in the bottom 99% of the population 1,500 years to produce the same amount of carbon that the wealthiest billionaires do annually.
Billionaires Called Out For Ruining The Planet
The report dubbed the super-rich individuals "the polluter elite." Among those identified in the report were the Mexican business mogul Carlos Slim, the American founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, and the CEO of Tesla and X, Elon Musk.
The "white male billionaires" were reportedly the "big winners" while women and people of color, including the indigenous people, "are on the sharp end of climate breakdown."
Their "vast" and "shocking" emissions reportedly stem from their enormous collection of investments, homes, private superyachts, planes, and more.
Oxfam, a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice, advocates for high wealth taxes on the extremely wealthy and windfall taxes on fossil fuel corporations to help the most vulnerable, lessen inequality, and finance the switch to renewable energy. According to the report, a 60% tax on the incomes of the richest one percent would generate $6.4 trillion annually and reduce emissions by 695 million tonnes, greater than the UK's carbon footprint in 2019.
"Not taxing wealth allows the richest to rob us, ruin our planet, and renege on democracy," said Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International's interim executive director. "Taxing extreme wealth transforms our chances to tackle inequality and the climate crisis. These are trillions of dollars at stake to invest in dynamic 21st-century green governments and re-inject into our democracies."
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