Some 50 of the world’s richest billionaires produce on average more carbon in just over an hour and a half than the average person does in their lifetime, a new report reveals

The report from Oxfam, “Carbon Inequality Kills”, the first to look at the luxury transport and polluting investments of billionaires, found that 50 of the world’s richest billionaires took 184 flights in a single year, spending 425 hours in the air and producing as much carbon as the average person would in 300 years.

In the same period, their yachts emitted as much carbon as the average person would in 860 years.

‘‘The world’s super-rich have shown time and again that they have no regards for the wellbeing of the rest of us and will neither stop nor slow down the plundering that is rapidly pushing life on the planet to the brink,” said Oxfam in Africa Director Fati N’zi-Hassane.

“Governments must urgently regain control and put in place policies that check runaway pollution by a tiny minority and make them pay for the wanton destruction they have already caused, especially in regions such as Africa that are least responsible for the climate crisis.”

Though Africa contributes less than four percent of global carbon emissions, the study establishes a massive intolerable gap between emissions by the continent’s rich and those of other Africans.

The richest 0.1 per cent emit as much carbon as the poorest 50 per cent. For example, in 2023, Aliko Dangote’s investment emitted, in just two seconds, the carbon equivalent of what the average African emits in an entire year.

Extrajudicial killings

This, the report says, is because nearly 40 percent of billionaire investments are in highly polluting industries such as oil, mining, shipping and cement. However, if their investments were in a low-carbon-intensity investment fund, their investment emissions would be 13 times lower.

“The emissions of the richest have caused global economic output to drop by $2.9 trillion since 1990. The biggest impact will be in countries least responsible for climate breakdown,” the report says.

“Low- and lower-middle-income countries will lose about 2.5 percent of their cumulative GDP between 1990 and 2050.

“Southern Asia, South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will lose 3 percent, 2.4 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively. High-income countries, on the other hand, will accrue economic gains.”

Emissions of the richest have also caused crop losses that could have provided enough calories to feed 14.5 million people a year between 1990 and 2023. This will rise to 46 million people annually between 2023 and 2050. In Africa, the loss could have fed 438,000 people a year and the number will rise to 1.7 million people a year between 2023 and 2050.