Billionaires and the super-rich are burning carbon at an extraordinary rate – the richest 0.1%, or 8 million people, have more emissions than the bottom 3.5 billion. The carbon pollution of the richest 1% is directly contributing to increased climate disasters such as floods, fires, droughts and food crises. Their yearly emissions will cause an estimated 1.9 million excess deaths from heat.
In turn, these climate disasters are not experienced equally. Climate disasters drive up inequality and are also far more lethal because of it. Deaths from flooding, for example, are seven times higher in more unequal countries.
Rich people can insulate themselves, paying more for food or moving to safer places, whereas most people cannot. Moreover, Oxfam’s new research shows how the super-rich are also actually cashing in on climate pain – making huge profits from sky-high food prices and profiting from disasters. Meanwhile, ordinary people, hit by successive climate shocks, struggle to recover. They are more exposed, more vulnerable, and have less savings to rebuild their lives.
It is possible to break this vicious circle. We can minimize the human harm of climate breakdown by reducing the emissions of the richest people, radically reducing inequality, and ensuring that actions to adapt to climate change have equality at their centre.