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A new report from the British charity Oxfam GB, which focuses on issues of inequality and poverty, highlights the irresponsible behavior of the ultra-wealthy who use private jets, labeling them as “symbols of climate injustice.”
To keep global warming within 1.5 °C, the richest one percent of the world’s population must reduce their carbon emissions by 97 percent by 2030. However, Oxfam GB predicts that this is unlikely to happen.
“The future of our planet hangs by a thread, yet the wealthiest individuals are allowed to live extravagantly and pollute the environment,” noted Chiara Ligouri, a senior climate justice policy advisor at Oxfam GB.
“Governments need to stop catering to the richest polluters and instead make them pay their fair share for the chaos they are causing on our planet,” she added.
Who are these individuals and what have they done to humanity?
The top one percent includes 77 million people worldwide. This group consists not only of billionaires and millionaires but also anyone earning over $140,000 a year, according to the Daily Mail.
According to the Oxfam GB report, the carbon emissions resulting from the lifestyles of the ultra-wealthy far exceed those of average individuals.
The annual carbon budget allows for emissions of 2.1 tons of CO2 per person on the planet. Meanwhile, the wealthy disregard this limit, with each individual emitting an average of a staggering 67 tons of CO2 each year. This means they only need 10 days to exhaust their share of the global annual carbon budget.
Experts at Oxfam GB predict that from 2015 to 2030, the richest one percent will only reduce their harmful per capita emissions by five percent, instead of the necessary 97%. How can we hold the wealthy accountable?
Ms. Ligouri stated that one optimal solution is to “significantly increase taxes on luxury items that harm the environment, such as private jets and superyachts.”
The report was released shortly after researchers from Linnaeus University in Sweden found that private jets produced 15.6 million tons of CO2 in 2023, which is a 46 percent increase compared to 2019.
In 2023, each frequent flyer was responsible for emitting 2,400 tons of harmful substances into the atmosphere—500 times more than the average person.
That same year, the wealthiest jet owners, including singer Taylor Swift and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, logged nearly 26,000 flight hours. Researchers argue that a significant portion of these trips could have been made by car or other forms of transportation that are less harmful to the environment.
