Oxfam: Richest 1% Produces Twice the Carbon Emissions than the Global Poor

PARIS, KOMPAS.com – Oxfam found that the richest 1 percent of people are responsible for producing more than twice the carbon emissions linked to worsening climate change.

Carbon emissions by the world’s richest one percent overtook emissions produced by the poorest half of the world’s population of 3.1 billion people.

The research finding revealed on Monday showed that between 1990 and 2015, rich nations were responsible for depleting nearly a third of Earth’s carbon budget.

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That period was a time when annual emissions ballooned 60 percent.

Though the coronavirus pandemic triggered a sharp decline in carbon emissions, it has not stopped the world from warming several degrees this century.

Poor and developing nations are at threat of the severe impact of climate change that will bring about a full gamut of natural disasters and displacements.

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The carbon budget is the limit of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions mankind may produce before rendering catastrophic temperature rises unavoidable.

Just 63 million people — the "one percent" — took up nine percent of the carbon budget since 1990, research conducted for Oxfam by the Stockholm Environment Institute found.

Highlighting an ever-widening "carbon inequality", the analysis said the growth rate of the one percent's emissions was three times that of the poorest half of humanity.

"It's not just that extreme economic inequality is divisive in our societies, it's not just that it slows the rate of poverty reduction," Tim Gore, head of policy, advocacy and research, told AFP.

"But there is also a third cost which is that it depletes the carbon budget solely for the purpose of the already affluent growing their consumption."

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"And that of course has the worse impacts on the poorest and least responsible," Gore added.

The 2015 Paris climate deal commits nations to limit global temperature rise to "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

But carbon emissions have continued to rise since then, and several analyses have warned that without a thoroughly re-tooled global economy prioritizing green growth, the pollutions savings due to Covid-19 will have an insignificant mitigating impact on climate change.

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With just 1C of warming so far, Earth is already battling more frequent and intense wildfires, droughts and superstorms rendered more powerful by rising seas.

Gore said governments must put the twin challenges of climate change and inequality at the heart of any Covid-19 recovery plan.

"It's clear that the carbon-intensive and highly unequal model of economic growth over the last 20-30 years has not benefited the poorest half of humanity," he said.

"It's a false dichotomy to suggest that we have to choose between economic growth and (fixing) the climate crisis."

Commenting on the Oxfam report, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an environment activist and president of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad, said that climate change could not be tackled without prioritizing economic equality.

"My indigenous peoples have long borne the brunt of environmental destruction," said Ibrahim.

"Now is the time to listen, to integrate our knowledge, and to prioritize saving nature to save ourselves." 

(Writer: Patrick Galey)

Source: http://u.afp.com/3RUq