An hour and a half. That’s how long a billionaire needs –billionaire in English – to produce more carbon emissions than what an average person can generate in their entire life. This is revealed by the report of Oxfam Intermon Carbon emissions inequality killspublished this Monday. The study warns that the 50 richest people They also fuel poverty, hunger and death in the world with their high levels of emissions.
According to the document, which you have accessed Publicstill exists an amount of CO2 that we can safely emit, without leading to climate collapse. That is, without this leading to an increase in the average temperature of the planet above 1.5ºC. This quota is what is known as “carbon budget“But at the current rate, the richest will have exhausted it in just four years.
If the entire population of the Earth generated as many emissions as the richest 1%, That budget would be gone in less than five months.. If it did so at the rate that the average billionaire’s private jets and superyachts do, it would sell out in just two days, experts emphasize.
According to the Oxfam report, emissions from investments, private planes and luxury yachts of these billionaires They exceed those generated by the total consumption of the poorest 2% of the world’s population, equivalent to 155 million people.
“The world’s richest people are consuming a disproportionate amount of the remaining carbon budget, dragging humanity as a whole towards catastrophic and irreversible global warming“, emphasizes the organization in the executive summary of the study.
Bezos, Musk and the heirs of Walmart, in the spotlight
The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezosowns two private jets. These flew a total of 25 days over a 12-month period. To emit the same amount of carbon, an average worker at the tycoon’s company in the US would need 207 years.
The businessman Elon Musk It also has at least two private planes that, together, produce 5,497 tons of CO2 per year. This emissions level It is equivalent to those that an average person would produce over 834 years, or to the emissions of a person who is among the poorest 50% of the world’s population over 5,437 years.
On the other hand, the Walton family, heir to the supermarket chain Walmarthas three luxury yachts that, in one year, generated a carbon footprint equivalent to the total emissions produced by approximately 1,714 employees of its stores.
Economic investments, cornerstone of the CO2 emitted
Although the lifestyle of the richest reveals an irreconcilable gap with the consumption patterns of the average citizenthe markets in which they invest are the true Pandora’s box when it comes to carbon emissions. The Oxfam study emphasizes that Billionaires emit 340 times more CO2 through their financial strategies than through yachts and airplanes.
About 40% of billionaires’ investments are in highly polluting industries such as el oil, mining, transportation and cement industriesaccording to the report. This has an impact on labor and agricultural productivity, as well as energy use. The changes in production that derive from these transformations result in a negative impact on economic growth, which especially affects the poorest countries.
The action of billionaires also increases hunger in the world
The authors of the research estimate that the richest 1% of the world’s population will have an economic cost of almost 50 billion euros between 1990 and 2050. According to the measurements made, the investments of the richest They will have generated economic losses of more than 230 billion euros in 2050. This figure is equivalent to the current GDP of countries such as Ecuador and Bulgaria.
The action of billionaires also increases hunger in the world. Oxfam’s analysis estimates that variations in the productivity of the main food crops worldwide are due to changing temperatures. This analysis includes corn, wheat and soybeanswhich are among the most common crops on the planet.
Emissions that kill
When people are exposed to extreme heat, their risk of life-threatening illnesses increases dramatically. The sunstroke and heat stroke They occur when the human body is no longer able to control its own temperature, while the exposure to excessive heat It can also contribute to deaths from heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.
Oxfam has estimated the number of deaths attributable to the emissions generated by billionaires. The conclusions of this analysis reveal that, even in an optimistic climate change scenario, the emissions that the richest people in the world emissions in just four years are raising temperatures enough to increase the number of deaths in the world.
Lourdes Benavidesresponsible for fragile countries at Oxfam Intermón, claims “that the super rich pay“. The organization calls for permanent taxes on the economic elites and the most polluting corporations, as well as a ban on “luxury products such as yachts or private jets.”
Benavides defends raising this money to finance the loss and damage of the poorest countriessince “they are the ones who suffer the consequences the most, without being at the origin of the climate crisis,” he concludes.
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