Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ two private jets spent nearly 25 days in the air over a 12-month period
The world’s richest 1% have used up their fair share of the annual carbon budget just 10 days into the new year.
In less than a week and a half, the consumption habits of the super-rich, including using superyachts and private jets, produced 2.1 tonnes of carbon emissions.
It would take someone from the poorest half of the world’s population three years to use the same amount of carbon.
In 2015, at COP21 in Paris, world leaders committed to limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The EU’s Copernicus climate change service has published data today which shows that 2024 is the first calendar year where global temperatures are 1.5°C above this level.
By 2030, the richest 1% are set to reduce their individual consumption emissions by just 5%, compared with the 97% cuts needed to achieve the 1.5°C goal.
Walmart owners’ superyachts produced as much carbon as 1,700 Walmart shop workers
Previous research by Oxfam found that, on average, 50 of the world’s richest billionaires took 184 flights in a single year. It would take an average person 300 years to produce this amount of carbon.
Jeff Bezos’ two private jets spent nearly 25 days in the air over a 12-month period and emitted as much carbon as the average US Amazon employee would in 207 years.
The Walton family, heirs of the Walmart retail chain, own three superyachts that in one year produced as much carbon as around 1,714 Walmart shop workers.
While the super-rich are responsible for producing more than twice as much carbon pollution than the world’s poorest, it is the poorest who are suffering the most serious consequences of climate change.
Taxes on private jets and superyachts could have raised £2 billion in 2023
Chiara Liguori, Oxfam GB’s Senior Climate Justice Policy Advisor said: “The future of our planet is hanging by a thread, yet the super-rich are being allowed to continue to squander humanity’s chances with their lavish lifestyles and polluting investments.”
Liguori added: “Governments need to stop pandering to the richest polluters and instead make them pay their fair share for the havoc they’re wreaking on our planet.
“Leaders who fail to act are culpable in a crisis that threatens the lives of billions.”
The charity has calculated that fair taxes on private jets and superyachts in the UK could have raised up to £2 billion in 2023 to help tackle climate change.
Liguori said: “As global temperatures continue to climb, the UK must show how it will generate its own share of new, fair funding to meet the escalating climate finance needs and fight inequality – significantly higher taxes on polluting luxuries like private jets and superyachts is an obvious place for the government to start.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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