In a stark new warning ahead of COP30 in Brazil, Oxfam International has laid bare the scale of climate injustice: one person in the world’s richest 0.1 per cent emits more CO₂ in a single day than someone from the poorest half of humanity emits in an entire year.
The report “Climate Plunder: How a Powerful Few Are Locking the World into Disaster” finds that a member of the richest 0.1 per cent produces on average over 800 kg of CO₂ per day, compared with around 2 kg per day for someone in the poorest 50 per cent of the global population.
If everyone in the world emitted at that richest-0.1 per cent level, the planet’s remaining “carbon budget” – the limit of CO₂ we can emit while still aiming for the 1.5 °C warming threshold – would be exhausted in less than three weeks.
Since 1990, the share of global emissions attributable to the richest 0.1 per cent has increased by 32 per cent, while that of the poorest half has fallen by 3 per cent.
Human and Economic Toll
Oxfam points to two main channels: luxurious consumption and high-carbon investment. According to the report:
- The super-rich are deeply embedded in high-emission sectors via investment portfolios (oil, gas, mining etc).
- Their lifestyles – private jets, mega yachts, multiple homes – amplify the per-capita emissions enormously.
For example, the report states that the average billionaire emits around 1.9 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year through their investments alone.
The consequences of this carbon inequality are not academic. Oxfam estimates:
- The emissions of the richest 1 per cent will contribute to 1.3 million heat-related deaths by the end of the century, mostly in low- and middle-income countries.
- By 2050, economic damages borne by less wealthy countries from these emissions are projected to reach US $44 trillion.
- Crop losses triggered by the rich-emissions also translate into food insecurity: enough calories have already been lost to have fed at least 10 million people a year in Eastern and Southern Asia.
This is the bitter irony: those who emit the least are suffering the most. As Oxfam puts it: “the climate crisis is an inequality crisis.”
Policy and Redress: What Oxfam Demands
In light of these findings, Oxfam calls for a raft of structural changes:
- Wealth and income taxation targeted at the richest 1 per cent and above, especially taxing income, extreme wealth and excess profits from fossil-fuel sectors.
- A ban or levy on carbon-intensive luxury consumptions – private jets, mega-yachts, multiple mansions – that enable extreme per-capita emissions.
- Curtailing the political and lobbying influence of high-emissions industries and super-rich individuals in climate policy, so that the agenda shifts from their interests to those of vulnerable communities.
- Stronger climate finance commitments from rich countries, following the logic that those who have burned the most carbon should support those who are most impacted and least responsible.
For countries like India, Nepal and Bangladesh, the report’s message carries particular weight. Low- and middle-income nations, which contribute a small fraction of global emissions, are already bearing the brunt of extreme weather, sea-level rise and food-insecurity. Yet the emissions drivers are far removed: luxury consumption and high-carbon investment patterns in affluent countries and among the global elite.
This localization of a global issue means two things:
- First, climate policy must integrate inequality and justice dimensions; cutting emissions alone isn’t enough if the burden is shouldered by the already vulnerable.
- Second, there’s a policy imperative for wealthy emitters to be held accountable – both within rich-country borders and through global governance mechanisms – so that finance and technology can flow to those on the frontlines of climate impacts.
Window of Opportunity
The report warns that the world is running out of time. With the richest 0.1 per cent already eating into the carbon budget at such a rate, the chance of keeping warming to 1.5 °C narrows further. As one of its stark statements says: if everyone emitted like the richest 0.1 per cent, the budget would vanish in less than three weeks.
In short: delaying action by or on the high-emitters is not just costly — it is a direct betrayal of climate justice and of the vulnerable populations who have done the least to cause this crisis.
The new Oxfam findings shatter any comfort in narratives that “we’re all equally responsible” for climate change. The data, chilling though it is, make it unmistakably clear: a tiny minority of the global population is disproportionately responsible for carbon emissions – and thereby for locking in catastrophic climate outcomes for billions more.
For policymakers, the message is urgent: hold the affluent accountable, shift the direction of climate finance and action, and embed fairness and justice at the heart of every emissions-cutting strategy.
(Credit to owsa.in)