The richest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the people who made up the poorest half of humanity during a critical 25-year period of unprecedented growth in emissions. This is revealed in Oxfam’s new report, ‘Confronting Carbon Inequality’.
Oxfam investigated the CO2 emissions of various income groups worldwide between 1990 and 2015. According to the report, the richest 1% of these, about 63 million people, accounted for 15% of emissions in that period whilst the poorest half of the entire world’s population was responsible for only 7%.
The report also revealed that annual emissions grew by 60% between 1990 and 2015 and that the richest 5% the world’s population were responsible for over a third (37%) of this growth.
Climate Disaster
“Decades of government policy aimed at endless economic growth have brought us to the brink of climate disaster,” says Oxfam Novib’s climate expert Bertram Zagema. “It is mainly the poorest in developing countries who pay the price.”
Emissions fell sharply during the global lockdown measures, but they are rising quickly again as restrictions are relaxed. Governments should impose strict requirements on coronavirus packages for companies, says Zagema, including the reduction of CO2 emissions.
The report estimates that the richest 10% in the world will need to reduce their emissions by more than 90% over the next ten years to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, the global carbon budget to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees this century will have been exceeded by 2030.
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