The super-rich pollute more than everyone else. There is only one solution: tax them. So says Oxfam.

To drive the point home, Amitabh Behar, interim executive director of Oxfam International, stepped in directly. ‘The super-rich are plundering and polluting the planet to the point of destruction,’ he stated bluntly, ‘leaving humanity choking from extreme heat, floods and drought.’

And if it is true that ‘for years we have fought to end the era of fossil fuels, which would save millions of lives and our planet’, it is now clearer than ever ‘that this will be impossible until we also end the era of extreme wealth’, Behar concluded.

The report ‘Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99%’ is based on research by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and assesses emissions arising from the consumption of different income groups in 2019, the most recent year for which data are available.

The study’s finding is unequivocal, showing the sharp gap between the carbon footprint of the super-rich – with their carbon-hungry lifestyles and investments in polluting industries – and that of most people around the world.

The richest 1% (77 million people) were responsible for 16% of emissions from global consumption in 2019. That is higher than all emissions from cars and road transport!

Another figure that gives pause for thought: it would take around 1,500 years for someone in the poorest 99% of the population to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires produce in a year.

The comparisons are merciless. Every year, the emissions of the richest 1% cancel out the carbon savings from almost a million wind turbines. A fine two-fingered salute, as we say here, to efforts to develop alternative energy sources.

And there is more: since the 1990s, the richest 1% have used up twice as much of the remaining carbon budget, the amount that could still be burned without raising global temperature above the safe limit of 1.5°C, as the poorest half of humanity.

The icing on the (poisoned) cake: the richest 1% are forecast to have carbon emissions 22 times higher than the level compatible with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal in 2030.

You read that correctly: 22 times higher.

The fact is that, beyond political or ideological stances and governments’ proclamations, Oxfam sees first-hand every day how populations living in poverty bear the burden of climate impacts enormously more than rich countries do.

A vicious circle has taken hold, one that only widens the gap. The report confronts us with a truth that is extremely uncomfortable for us: seven times more people die from floods in countries with greater economic and social inequality. And climate change is already worsening inequalities both between and within countries.

This is why Oxfam is making a heartfelt appeal, almost a cry, to the world’s governments, first of all to those of the wealthy part of humanity. The super-rich must be made to cut their excessive emissions, and it must be done now. Even with much-hated taxes.

Oxfam has calculated that a 60% tax on the incomes of the richest 1% would cut emissions by more than the total emissions of the United Kingdom and would raise 6.4 trillion dollars a year, which could be used to fund the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

‘Not taxing wealth allows the richest to rob us, wreck our planet and betray democracy,’ said Behar. ‘Taxing extreme wealth transforms our chances of tackling both inequality and the climate crisis. There are trillions of dollars at stake to invest for the “green” governments of the 21st century, but also to make our democracies grow and become stronger.’