Billionaires emit more CO2 in 90 minutes than the average person in their entire life

According to research published in recent days by Oxfam, fifty of the richest billionaires in the world emit, on average, more CO2 in just 90 minutes than an ordinary person emits in their entire life.The report, entitled “Carbon Inequality Kills”, highlights how the emissions of the super-rich result by their luxurious lifestyle and investments in sectors with a high environmental impact, constitute a direct threat to the planet and the most vulnerable population groups.The research has been published a few days before the start of COP29, the climate summit to be held from 11 to 22 November in Azerbaijan, and aims to highlight, with data in hand, the crucial role that the super-rich have in accelerating the climate crisis.

The figures illustrated they are impressive:the billionaires analyzed have accumulated, in just one year, more emissions thanks to private flights and yachts than the average person would in centuries.In fact, the 50 super-rich took 184 flights in just one year, spending 425 hours on board the aircraft, producing as much carbon as an ordinary person would produce in 300 years.Their yachts also emitted as much carbon as the average person would produce in 860 years.In the statement accompanying the report, Oxfam quote the example of Amazon owner and president Jeff Bezos, whose two private jets “spent nearly 25 days in the air over a 12-month period” emitting “as much carbon as the average Amazon employee in the United States would emit in 207 years” ;the entrepreneur Carlos Slim, the richest man in Mexico, has instead "made 92 trips with his private jet, equivalent to five trips around the globe", while "the Walton family", heirs to the Walmart retail brand, «he owns three superyachts that in one year produced the same amount of carbon as approximately 1,714 Walmart store employees».In the report, Oxfam highlights that the emissions of the richest 1% «have caused global economic output to decline by $2.9 trillion since 1990» and that the greatest impact «will be in the countries least responsible for climate collapse», as well as «losses of crops that could have provided enough calories to feed 14.5 million people a year between 1990 and 2023».Low and medium-low income countries, the organization writes, «will lose approximately 2.5% of their cumulative GDP between 1990 and 2050” and will see “78 percent of heat-related deaths” globally “by 2120.”

The proposal, also supported by Oxfam, to introduce tax measures that affect the assets of the super-rich, was sunk last July – at the meeting of G20 ministers – by the USA.According to Treasury Undersecretary Janet Yellen, in fact, it is «preferable for each country to deal with its own tax system», due to the difficulties arising from achieving global coordination for an initiative of this kind.Brazil pushed hard for the introduction of a global tax on the super-rich, which has so far found support from France, Spain, South Africa, Colombia and the African Union.Meanwhile, a study conducted by an international group of researchers led by Copenhagen Business School, the University of Basel and the University of Cambridge, subjected to peer review and published in the very prestigious scientific journal Nature, has recently proven as the carbon footprint of wealthier people is vastly underestimated, while the footprint of the poorest people is drastically overestimated.The team interviewed thousands of people from Denmark, India, Nigeria and the United States  – four countries differing in wealth, lifestyle and culture – finding that, based on the responses, both high-income and low-income people low they demonstrate not being sufficiently aware of their real impact on the climate.The researchers explained that the phenomenon could reflect generally higher levels of education among high-income earners, a greater ability to absorb price-based policies, or a greater preference for technological solutions to the climate crisis.

[by Stefano Baudino]