The world’s richest 1% have used up their fair share of carbon emissions just 10 days into 2026, analysis has found.
Meanwhile, the richest 0.1% took just three days to exhaust their annual carbon budget, according to the research by Oxfam.
The charity said the worst effects of the emissions would be faced by those who had done the least to cause the climate crisis, including people in low-income countries on the frontlines of climate breakdown, Indigenous groups, women and girls.
Lower- and middle-income countries are most at risk from the detrimental effects of these emissions, with global economic damage potentially adding up to £44tn by 2050.
Not only are the super-rich responsible for most carbon emissions, but they also invest in the most polluting industries. A billionaire carries, on average, an investment portfolio in companies that will produce 1.9m tonnes of CO2 a year – roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 400,000 petrol cars.
How dare you question your social betters.
Now go back to sorting your recycling.
And just ten days in, folks - for the top 1%. It seems the richest 0.1% needed only three.
While, ironically, the immediate climate crisis affects the poor and marginalized. Then when they come knocking on our door for help, we’re told by certain loud voices that it’s the immigrants who are at fault.
When the people wake up, I can’t imagine what they’ll do to the empathy-starved elite. It won’t be pretty.
Pretty? It’ll be beautiful.
I’m losing hope that it will happen in our lifetime. There’s just too many brainwashed idiots who rabidly support facism
I’m fairly certain I will die in WWIII before being able to see that glory.
In ww2. 70 million civilians died in Europe alone
I live about 4 hrs away from a Minuteman lll AFB (and 13 hrs away from another one). Depending on how the wind blows a nuclear strike could take out tens of millions.
5 days ago USA Today did an article with fallout data in the so-called Sponge region.
https://www.usatoday.com/graphics/interactives/us-nuclear-weapons-expansion-fallout-map/
Note that the world’s top 1% is 83 million people, which includes way more than 1% of the population of places like the US and western Europe.
If you’re a “middle class” homeowner in a high cost-of-living area, you’re part of this statistic.
Yeah but within those 1% the pattern essentially is the same where a small minority puts out way more CO2 than the average person
I expect even some bigger gaps, because top 1% is usually when you start having enough money to have good living standards efficiently. I.e. at this point you have the option of having efficient construction and waste less on cooling and heating, you can afford more sustainable clothing, both in terms of material and durability, etc. But unfortunately lots of people just decide to turbocharge destructive consumption instead.
I mean, accounting for purchasing power parity, you wouldn’t, by definition.
