The richest one per cent of the population used up their share of the annual global carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be added to the atmosphere without the world exceeding the 1.5°C warming threshold – in the first 10 days of 2025, new analysis by Oxfam reveals.
By contrast, it would take a person from the poorer half of the world’s population nearly three years (1,022 days) to consume their share of the annual global carbon budget.
This worrying milestone, which Oxfam called Pollutocrat Daypoints out how climate breakdown is being disproportionately caused by the super-rich, whose emissions far exceed those of ordinary people.
The richest one percent are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the poorest half of humanity, with devastating consequences for communities around the world, such as the fires currently ravaging southern California, Oxfam warns. To reach the 1.5°C target, the richest one percent must reduce their emissions by 97 percent by 2030.
“The future of our planet hangs in the balance,” said Nafkote Dabi, director of climate change policy at Oxfam International. “The room for maneuver is minimal, and the super-rich continue to squander humanity’s chances with their lavish lifestyles, polluting investments and destructive political influence. This is theft – pure and simple – a small minority stealing the future of billions of people to satisfy their insatiable greed.”
Oxfam research shows that since 1990, the emissions of the richest one percent have caused trillions of dollars in economic damage, massive crop losses and millions of premature deaths.
Source: Circular economy
Source: energetskiportal.rs
