The richest 1 percent of the world's population produced as much carbon pollution in 2019 as the five billion people who made up the poorest two-thirds of humanity, according to a report published today by Oxfam ahead of the UN climate summit, COP28.
A message Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99% is based on research from the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI). It assesses the consumption emissions of different income groups, pointing to a stark gap between the carbon footprint of the super-rich — whose carbon-heavy lifestyles and investments in polluting industries like fossil fuels drive global warming — and the rest of the world. (More on www.oxfam.org.uk)