When emissions from thee investments of billionaires is calculated, then their carbon emissions are over a million times higher the normal person, the non-profit said.
New Delhi: The investments of 125 of the world’s richest billionaires yield an annual average of three million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, more than a million times t he average for someone in the bottom 90% of humanity, according to a new report by the non-profit group Oxfam.
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The investments of billionaires in polluting industries such as fossil fuels and cement are double the average for the Standard and Poor group of 500 companies, said the report titled ‘Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world’s richest people‘. Only one billionaire in the sample had investments in a renewable energy company.
The report says that the actual figure is likely to be higher still, as published carbon emissions by corporates “have been shown to systematically underestimate the true level of carbon impact”, Oxfam said. The report does not include the data of billionaires and corporates who do not publicly reveal their emissions, it added.
To put things into perspective, each of these billionaires would have to circumnavigate the world almost 16 million times in a private jet to create the same emissions, the report said.
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It would take 1.8 million cows to emit the same levels of CO2e as each of the 125 billionaires. Almost four million people would have to go vegan to offset the emissions of each of the billionaires, it said.
“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. But if we look at emissions from their investments, then their carbon emissions are over a million times higher,” said Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Lead at Oxfam International.
“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,” said Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India.
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The study found that if the billionaires in the sample moved their investments to a fund with stronger environmental and social standards, it could reduce the intensity of their emissions by up to four times.
Often the high-profile commitments made by corporates do not stand up to scrutiny. The flurry of net zero goals that depend on offsetting is at best a distraction from the need to take short-term measures to reduce corporates’ emissions and has the potential to derail climate action, Oxfam said.
NOTE – This article was originally published in thewire and can be viewed here
Tags: #carbon, #climate, #climatechange, #climatecrisis, #CO2, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #Oxfam, #Pollution
