The Oxfam report predicts that it will take four years if the carbon emission continues as today.
The excessive carbon emitted by the wealthiest 1% in the world is worsening hunger, poverty, and excessive mortality.
Owning luxury yachts and private jets and investing in polluting industries are making it increasingly difficult to keep global warming to 1.5C.
The Oxfam report stated that if everyone on Earth releases planet-warming gases at the same rate as a typical billionaire, the carbon budget depletes in less than two days needed to maintain within 1.5C. It predicts that it will take four years if the carbon emission continues as today.
The analysis from the anti-poverty group about carbon inequality urges the government to impose taxes on the ultra-rich so that it would reduce excessive consumption and generate revenue to switch to clean energy so that it would compensate for the people who are most affected by global warming.
Oxfam’s analysis found that the top fifty billionaires in the world emit more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in less than three hours on average compared to what a British person does in their lifetime. They spend 425 hours in the air, using their 184 private jet flights. It produces carbon an average person would emit in the world in 300 years. Their luxury yachts produce carbon that the average individual produces in 860 years.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, spent almost 25 days using his two private jets, releasing the same carbon an average US Amazon employee would emit in 207 years.
At the same time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the second richest man in the world, released as much carbon dioxide from his two private jets as an average person would emit in 834 years.
Walton family, the heir of the Walmart retail chain, emitted 18,000 tonnes of carbon using their three yachts, which is an amount similar to 1714 Walmart employees.
The Oxfam researchers developed a methodology to calculate emissions from yachts based on the size, engine specifications, fuel type, hours on the sea, and air conditioners for helicopter hangars.
Alex Maitland, one of the authors in the report, stated that he found that superyachts were the most polluting that is used by billionaires, except perhaps a rocket ship.
The greenhouse gas emissions from the investments made by the billionaires were 340 times more detrimental than the carbon dioxide emitted from their yachts and jets.
The portfolio of investments made by the 50 billionaires in the study was more polluting than an investment made in the US stock index. Almost 40% of the shares are in industries that generate the highest carbon emissions, like cement, mining, shipping, and oil.
According to Oxfam, billionaires have more choices in where they invest than poor or middle-class people. Their investment emissions would be 13 times lower if they moved their investment to low-carbon-intensity ETFs.
The report also predicts that the consumption emissions of the wealthiest 1%, or those earning at least $140,000 (£108,000), would cause 1.5 more deaths in the next century.
The report claims that the consumption emissions of the affluent group in the past three decades have led to crop losses equal to the annual calorie demands of 14.5 million people in the year and a $2.9 trillion decline in world economic production.
Chiara Liguori, the senior climate justice policy consultant at Oxfam, stated that from the report, it is evident that the luxurious lifestyle and investments in polluting industries made by billionaires will cause more inequality and hunger and even threaten lives.
He adds that their reckless pollution is unfair and is threatening a crisis to the future of society.
These findings are in the annual carbon inequality reports published by Oxfam and Stockholm Environment Institute.
According to a report, the 1% of the people who are the wealthiest live in the global north and lead an air-conditioned life generate as much carbon pollution as the 5 billion people who make up two-thirds of the population who live in the poorer countries in the global south.
It also stressed the need to solve the climate and inequality issues with a carbon tax on the high carbon-emitting businesses, a higher tax on the super-rich, and limiting the usage of private jets and luxury yachts.
It demonstrated more fair taxes on the extremely rich to help fight against the climate crisis and inequality, as their extreme consumption is a direct threat to society and the planet.
