Billionaires accused: the richest emit greenhouse gases a million times more than the average people in the world. Thus a report by Oxfam, a charity that fights global poverty, according to which the investments of the 125 richest billionaires in the world cause 393 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year, a production of CO2 equivalent to that of the whole of France .
In other words, the annual emissions of an average billionaire are a million times higher than those of a person belonging to the poorest 90% of the world population.
Il Oxfam report analyzed how 125 of the richest people in the world have invested their money and looked at the carbon emissions of those investments. And the analysis found that the Paperoni included in the study have a collective stake of $ 2.4 trillion in 183 companies, which equates on average to 3 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted per billionaire per year. People outside the richest 10% in the world emit an average of 2.76 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
The study found that about 14% of investment by billionaires is placed in “polluting industries“, Such as non-renewable energy and materials such as cement, while the average investor has invested half the amount in these sectors. The billionaires “have escaped responsibility for too long” said Danny Sriskandarajah, general manager of Oxfam GB who took the opportunity, during the COP27 scheduled in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, to invite world leaders to “unmask and change the role that large corporations and their wealthy investors are playing in profiting from the pollution that is driving the climate crisis ”. “The role of the super-rich in promoting climate change is rarely discussed,” said Sriskandarajah so “this has to change. These billionaire investors at the top of the corporate pyramid have a huge responsibility in driving the climate collapse. “