‘Setting the planet on fire’: Richest 0.1% emit more carbon than poorest 3.5 billion, Oxfam says
Source: Fortune ·
The ultra-rich cause an outsized share of emissions while others pay for the damage. Experts say the answer is pressure, not guilt.
From the source
Things like skipping the flight, taking the train, and eating less meat can help reduce one’s carbon footprint. But even with all that personal effort, somewhere above, a jet might be in the air. And private jets are some of the biggest sources of carbon emissions. According to a new Oxfam report, the 8 million people who make up the world’s richest 0.1% are responsible for more carbon pollution than the poorest 3.5 billion people combined. In the U.S., the report found that the richest 0.1% emit 108 times more carbon dioxide per person than the poorest half of the country, and a lot of it has to do with private aircraft. Oxfam calls private aviation one of the clearest examples of that inequality: all of the world’s private jets combined emit more carbon pollution in two seconds than someone in the poorest half of humanity does in a year. It estimates private jets emitted 16 million tons of CO2 in 2025. “It’s basically all about plane travel,” Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at…