Carbon emissions of richest 1% increase hunger, poverty, deaths
Research by Oxfam found that the world’s 50 richest billionaires produce on average more carbon emissions in under three hours than the average British person does in their entire lifetime.
Their analysis also shows that the past three decades of consumption emissions of this wealthy group have caused global economic output to fall by $2.9tn and crop losses equivalent to the caloric needs of 14.5 million people a year.
The wealthiest 1% – who tend to live climate-insulated, air-conditioned lives, mostly in the Global North – produce as much carbon pollution as the 5 billion people who make up the poorest and most vulnerable two-thirds of the human population, who predominantly live in poorer countries in the Global South.