Super rich contributing 400 times more to climate change than poor: Oxfam

The world’s wealthiest 0.1 percent, a group of 8 million people, emit more CO2 than nearly half of the global population. One super-rich person contributes nearly 400 times more to the current extreme weather conditions than someone from the poorest 50 percent of the global population. And while they are causing climate-related disasters, they are also increasingly profiting from them, Oxfam said in a report published on Tuesday.

“By 2050, as many as 1 billion people - roughly 10 percent of the world’s population - could be displaced by the climate crises,” Jacqueline Persson of Oxfam told RTL Nieuws. “The super rich and their companies are setting the planet on fire, and then making a fortune from firefighting equipment.”

In the Netherlands, the wealthiest 0.1 percent, a group of 17,000 individuals, emit 18 times more CO2 than the poorest 50 percent of the Dutch population, a group that consists of 8.8 million people. In just two years, one ultra-rich Dutch person emits as much CO2 as someone from the poorest half of the population does in 30 years. Globally, the richest 0.1 percent is responsible for three times the volume of CO2 emissions produced by the entire population of sub-Saharan Africa, a region home to 1.3 billion people.

According to the development organization, post-climate-disaster reconstruction is becoming an “increasingly lucrative business model.” Oxfam estimates that the global market for post-climate-disaster reconstruction will increase from approximately $70 billion to $92 billion by 2029. The super rich hold shares in large construction and insurance firms involved in reconstruction efforts. Some also hold major stakes in the fossil fuel industry.

Oxfam identified 217 companies that profit either from contributing to the climate crisis, or from the climate-related damage that results from it. It sourced its data from public databases, the Forbes billionaire list, and data on emissions from private jets.