Richest 1% emit almost four times more planet-heating pollution than the entire African continent

The richest 1 percent of the world’s population produced four times more carbon pollution in 2019 as the entire population of Africa (1.32 billion people), reveals a new Oxfam report today. It comes ahead of the UN climate summit in Dubai, amid growing fears that the 1.5°C target for curtailing rising temperatures appears increasingly unachievable.

These outsized emissions of the richest 1 percent will cause 1.3 million heat-related excess deaths, equivalent to over half the population of Gabon. Most of these deaths will occur between 2020 and 2030. The global warming caused by the emissions of the richest 1 percent will cause enough damage to wipe out the equivalent of over half of Africa’s production of rice, wheat, maize and soy. The continent’s agricultural productivity has fallen by 34 percent since 1961, in large part due to climate change. This is more than in any other region.

‘‘The super-rich continue to be one of the biggest threats to safe and sustainable life on our planet,’’ said Oxfam in Africa Director Fati N’zi-Hassane.

‘‘It’s shameful that people most affected by climate breakdown, like so many Africans, are the least responsible for global warming. They’re also the least prepared to face the climate damage caused by a very small group of big polluters’’ said N’zi-Hassane. 

“Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99%” is based on research with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and assesses the consumption emissions of different income groups in 2019, the most recent year for which data are available. The report shows the stark gap between the carbon footprints of the super-rich —whose carbon-hungry lifestyles and investments in polluting industries like fossil fuels are driving global warming— and the bulk of people across the world. 

• The richest 1 percent (77 million people) were responsible for 16 percent of global consumption emissions in 2019 —more than all car and road transport emissions. The richest 10 percent accounted for half (50 percent) of emissions. 
• It would take about 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99 percent to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires do in a year. 
• Every year, the emissions of the richest 1 percent cancel out the carbon savings coming from nearly one million wind turbines.
• Since the 1990s, the richest 1 percent have used up twice as much of the carbon we have left to burn without increasing global temperatures above the limit of 1.5°C than the poorest half of humanity. 
• The carbon emissions of richest 1 percent are set to be 22 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement in 2030.

Climate breakdown and inequality are locked in a vicious cycle — Oxfam has seen first-hand how people living in poverty, women and girls, Indigenous communities and Global South countries are feeling the unequal brunt of climate impacts, which in turn increase the divide. The report finds that seven times more people die from floods in more unequal countries. Climate change is already worsening inequality both between and within countries.

Governments can tackle the twin crises of inequality and climate change by targeting the excessive emissions of the super-rich and investing in public services and meeting climate goals. Oxfam calculates that a 60 percent tax on the incomes of the richest 1 percent would cut emissions by more than the total emissions of the UK and raise $6.4 trillion a year to pay for the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. 

Much of this new tax revenue must flow to the Global South to fund a rapid and just energy transition, support communities to protect themselves from climate change, and to provide compensation for the loss and damage caused by climate breakdown. But even as governments plan to implement wealth tax, they must use the existing international laws and agreements to arrest Illicit Financial Flows, considering that part of the wealth in the hands of some of the polluting supper-rich are made in the Global South where their businesses engage in massive tax avoidance and tax evasion. 

“For years we’ve fought to end the era of fossil fuels to save millions of lives and our planet. It’s clearer than ever this will be impossible until we, too, end the era of extreme wealth,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

“We must make the connection explicitly. 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. These are trillions of dollars at stake to invest in dynamic 21st century green governments, but also to re-inject into our democracies,” said Behar.

Oxfam is calling on governments to:

• Dramatically reduce inequality. Oxfam calculates that it would be possible, through a global redistribution of incomes, to provide everyone living in poverty with a minimum daily income of $25 while still reducing global emissions by 10 percent (roughly the equivalent of the total emissions of the European Union). 
• Get off fossil fuels quickly and fairly. Rich countries are disproportionately responsible for global warming and must end oil and gas production correspondingly faster. New taxes on corporations and billionaires could help pay for the transition to renewable energy.
• Prioritize human and planetary well-being over endless profit, extraction and consumption. Stop using GDP growth as the measure of human progress.