Oxfam's latest research has revealed that the world's richest 1% currently emit more carbon dioxide than the world's poorest 66% combined. Carbon emissions from this 1% will “cause 1.3 million heat-related deaths” worldwide between 2020 and 2030.
Oxfam added that the bottom 99 per cent of the world would have to consume 1,500 years to match the carbon footprint that a billionaire currently emits in a single year.
But still, Political In fact, the impact of the ultra-rich exceeds the impact of personal energy consumption. Only the wealthiest of us “have the wealth, power, and influence to protect ourselves.” And that same “wealth, power, and influence” only encourages governments around the world to “encourage incremental changes” in energy policy, rather than phasing out fossil fuels or investing heavily in renewable energy. A new Oxfam study finds that they are not continuing to do so.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg added in her foreword to Oxfam's latest assessment of the world's environmental and economic crises that climate and inequality should not be treated as “separate issues”.
“Whether we protect the living conditions of all future generations or allow a few very wealthy people to maintain destructive lifestyles and maintain an economic system aimed at short-term economic growth and shareholder profits. It’s either,” she says.
Oxfam's 'double crisis of climate and inequality' Climate equality: the planet for the 99% The report goes on to say that they are “propelling each other” and that only a “radically new approach” remains a possibility to “overcome the catastrophe that is unfolding before our eyes.” There is.
That “radical new approach” must take on “the disproportionate role that the wealthiest individuals play in the climate crisis through their emissions, investments and political control.”
How can this desperately needed “new approach” be most effectively delivered? Oxfam says it will enrich the ultra-wealthy and their fortunes “to help pay for the transition to renewable energy” They argue that we need to start aggressively taxing companies.
This is just one example. About 45 major oil and gas companies made an average annual windfall of $237 billion in 2021 and 2022, but those dollars overwhelmingly went directly into the pockets of their wealthiest shareholders. According to Oxfam, if governments around the world had taxed this windfall profit by 90%, they could have increased global investment in renewable energy by 31%.
A new Oxfam study examines a range of other options that countries around the world could pursue to impose serious taxes on the wealthy. For example, the government could impose “significant and progressive” tax increases not only on the incomes of the ultra-wealthy, but also on their property, land and inheritances. It could raise taxes on corporate profits, fossil fuels and financial transactions, or impose an entirely new tax on “high-emission luxury travel.”
In other words, the world could have enough money for social and climate spending “if rich countries' governments were willing to implement bold and progressive tax reforms.”
Oxfam ultimately concludes that “we cannot allow the richest countries to claim they cannot afford to raise the trillions of dollars needed.” “We simply need political will to mobilize this funding.”
Sam Pizzigati, an associate research fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, is co-editor of Inequality.org. His latest book includes maximum wage claim and The rich don't always win: The forgotten victory over plutocracy that created America's middle class, 1900-1970..
