A billionaire has everything more than the average human- gas emission included! Per Oxfam, a billionaire is responsible for a million times more greenhouse gas emissions than the average person. The revelation comes after a detailed analysis of only 125 of the world’s wealthiest billionaires and their investments in polluting industries such as fossil fuels and cement. It is learned that these 125 billionaires collectively emit 393 million tonnes of CO2e each year, which is without exaggeration a million times higher than those living in the bottom 90%. “These few billionaires together have ‘investment emissions’ that equal the carbon footprints of entire countries like France, Egypt or Argentina,” said Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Lead at Oxfam.
“The major and growing responsibility of wealthy people for overall emissions is rarely discussed or considered in climate policy-making. This has to change. These billionaire investors at the top of the corporate pyramid have huge responsibility for driving climate breakdown. They have escaped accountability for too long.”
“Emissions from billionaire lifestyles – due to their frequent use of private jets and yachts – are thousands of times the average person, which is already completely unacceptable,” said Dabi. “But if we look at emissions from their investments, then their carbon emissions are over a million times higher.”
The study offered solutions wherein a billionaire consciously invests in a fund with more substantial environmental and social standards and reduces the intensity of their emissions. Never before has the choice of a billionaire and his investment been of such importance. It is no longer simply a personal decision and affects the world as a whole and shapes our economy’s future.
“The super-rich need to be taxed and regulated away from polluting investments that are destroying the planet. Governments must put also in place ambitious regulations and policies that compel corporations to be more accountable and transparent in reporting and radically reducing their emissions,” said Dabi, per Oxfam.
