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Billionaires emit more carbon pollution in 90 mins than the average person does

Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average produce more carbon through their investments, private jets and yachts in just over an hour and a half than the average person does in their entire lifetime, a new Oxfam report reveals today. The first-of-its-kind study, “Carbon Inequality Kills,” tracks the emissions from private jets, yachts and polluting investments and details how the super-rich are fueling inequality, hunger and death across the world. The report comes ahead of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, amidst growing fears that climate breakdown is accelerating, driven largely by the emissions of the richest people.

If the world continues its current emissions, the carbon budget (the amount of CO2 that can still be added to the atmosphere without causing global temperatures to rise above 1.5°C) will be depleted in about four years. However, if everyone’s emissions matched those of the richest 1 percent, the carbon budget would be used up in under five months. And if everyone started emitting as much carbon as the private jets and superyachts of the average billionaire in Oxfam’s study, it would be gone in two days.

“The super-rich are treating our planet like their personal playground, setting it ablaze for pleasure and profit. Their dirty investments and luxury toys —private jets and yachts— aren’t just symbols of excess; they’re a direct threat to people and the planet,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

“Oxfam’s research makes it painfully clear: the extreme emissions of the richest, from their luxury lifestyles and even more from their polluting investments, are fueling inequality, hunger and —make no mistake— threatening lives. It’s not just unfair that their reckless pollution and unbridled greed is fueling the very crisis threatening our collective future —it’s lethal,” said Behar.

The report, the first-ever study to look at both the luxury transport and polluting investments of billionaires, presents detailed new evidence of how their outsized emissions are accelerating climate breakdown and wreaking havoc on lives and economies. The world’s poorest countries and communities have done the least to cause the climate crisis, yet they experience its most dangerous consequences.

Oxfam found that, on average, 50 of the world’s richest billionaires took 184 private jet flights in a single year, spending 425 hours in the air —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.

  • Jeff Bezos’ two private jets spent nearly 25 days in the air over a 12-month period and emitted as much carbon as the average US Amazon employee would in 207 years. Carlos Slim took 92 trips in his private jet, equivalent to circling the globe five times.
  • The Walton family, heirs of the Walmart retail chain, own three superyachts that in one year produced as much carbon as around 1,714 Walmart shop workers.

Billionaires’ lifestyle emissions dwarf those of ordinary people, but the emissions from their investments are dramatically higher still —the average investment emissions of 50 of the world’s richest billionaires are around 340 times their emissions from private jets and superyachts combined. Through these investments, billionaires have huge influence over some of the world’s biggest corporations and are driving us over the edge of climate disaster.

Nearly 40 percent of billionaire investments analyzed in Oxfam’s research are in highly polluting industries: oil, mining, shipping and cement. On average, a billionaire’s investment portfolio is almost twice as polluting as an investment in the S&P 500. However, if their investments were in a low-carbon-intensity investment fund, their investment emissions would be 13 times lower.

Oxfam’s report details three critical areas, providing national and regional breakdowns, where the emissions of the world’s richest 1 percent since 1990 are already having —and are projected to have— devastating consequences:

  • Global inequality. The emissions of the richest 1 percent 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. 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.
  • Hunger. The emissions of the richest 1 percent have 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, with Latin America and the Caribbean especially affected (9 million a year by 2050).
  • Death. 78 percent of excess deaths due to heat through 2120 will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

“It’s become so tiring, to be resilient. It’s not something that I have chosen to be —it was necessary to survive. A child shouldn’t need to be strong. I just wanted to be safe, to play in the sand —but I was always fleeing when storms came. Counting dead bodies after a typhoon isn’t something any child should have to do. And whether we survive or not, the rich polluters don’t even care,” said Marinel Sumook Ubaldo, a young climate activist from the Philippines.

Rich countries have failed to keep their $100 billion climate finance promise, and heading into COP29, there is no indication that they will set a new climate finance goal that adequately addresses the climate financing needs of Global South countries. Oxfam warns that the cost of global warming will continue to rise unless the richest drastically reduce their emissions.

Ahead of COP29, Oxfam calls on governments to:

  • Reduce the emissions of the richest. Governments must introduce permanent income and wealth taxes on the top 1 percent, ban or punitively tax carbon-intensive luxury consumptions —starting with private jets and superyachts— and regulate corporations and investors to drastically and fairly reduce their emissions.
  • Make rich polluters pay. Climate finance needs are enormous and escalating, especially in Global South countries that are withstanding the worst climate impacts. A wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires could raise at least $1.7 trillion annually. A wealth tax on investments in polluting activities could bring in another $100 billion.
  • Reimagine our economies. The current economic system, designed to accumulate wealth for the already rich through relentless extraction and consumption, has long undermined a truly sustainable and equitable future for all. Governments need to commit to ensuring that, both globally and at a national level, the incomes of the top 10 percent are no higher than the bottom 40 percent.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Download Oxfam’s report “Carbon Inequality Kills” and the methodology note.

Oxfam’s research shows that the richest 1 percent, made up of 77 million people including billionaires, millionaires and those earning $310,000 ($140,000 PPP) or more a year, accounted for 16 percent of all CO2 emissions in 2019.

On average, a billionaire’s investments in polluting industries such as fossil fuels and cement are double the average for the Standard & Poor 500 group of corporations.

Oxfam’s analysis estimates the changes in economic output (GDP), changes in yields of major crops (it considers maize, wheat, and soy, which are among the most common crops globally) and excess deaths due to changes in temperatures that can be attributed to the emissions of the richest people. Economic damages are expressed in International Dollars ($), which adjusts for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).

Daniel Horen Greenford (Concordia University, Universitat de Barcelona) carried out the calculations on economic damages, Corey Lesk (Dartmouth College) conceived and carried out calculations on agricultural losses, and Daniel Bressler (Columbia University) provided country-level estimates of the mortality cost of carbon.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, if invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency measures by 2030, billionaires’ wealth could cover the entire funding gap between what governments have pledged and what is needed to keep global warming below 1.5⁰C.

Rich countries continue to resist calls for climate reparations. Climate activists are demanding the Global North provide at least $5 trillion a year in public finance to the Global South “as a down payment towards their climate debt” to the countries, people and communities of the Global South who are the least responsible for climate breakdown but are the most affected.

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz – rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz

Oxfam condemns killing of water engineers in Gaza

Oxfam condemns in the strongest terms the killing in Gaza today of four water engineers and workers from the Khuzaa municipality who were working with our strategic partner the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU).  

The four men were killed on their way to conduct repairs to water infrastructure in Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis. Despite prior coordination with Israeli authorities their clearly-marked vehicle was bombed. Oxfam stands in solidarity with the CMWU, their partners and the families of the victims.  

Their deaths deepen the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza where access to clean water is already severely compromised.  

Dozens of engineers, civil servants and humanitarian workers have been killed in Israeli airstrikes throughout this war. They were all working on essential services to keep Gaza’s fragile infrastructure running. Despite their movements being coordinated with the Israeli authorities by the CMWU and the Palestinian Water Authority, to ensure their safety, they were still targeted.  

Attacks on civilian infrastructure and those who maintain it are clear violations of international humanitarian law. Those responsible must be held to account. Such attacks are part of the crime of using starvation as a weapon of war.   

Oxfam demands an independent investigation into this and other attacks on essential workers. We reiterate our calls for a ceasefire, an immediate halt to arms transfers to Israel, and the international community to ensure Israel is held accountable for its continued assault on civilians and those working to deliver life-saving services.

Contact Information: 

Rachel Schaevitz, rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz

Up to 21,000 people are dying each day from conflict-fuelled hunger around the world

On World Food Day, hunger has reached an all-time high exposing the flaws in global peacebuilding and conflict recovery efforts 

 

Between 7,000 to as many as 21,000 people are likely dying each day from hunger in countries impacted by conflict, according to a new Oxfam report published on World Food Day.

The report, Food Wars, examined 54 conflict-affected countries and found that they account for almost all of the 281.6 million people facing acute hunger today. Conflict has also been one of the main causes of forced displacement in these countries, which has globally reached a record level today of more than 117 million people.

It argues that conflict is not only a primary driver of hunger, but that warring parties are also actively weaponizing food itself by deliberately targeting food, water and energy infrastructure and by blocking food aid. 

“As conflict rages around the world, starvation has become a lethal weapon wielded by warring parties against international laws, causing an alarming rise in human deaths and suffering. That civilians continue to be subjected to such slow death in the 21st century, is a collective failure”, says Emily Farr, Oxfam’s Food and Economic Security Lead. 

“Today’s food crises are largely manufactured. Nearly half a million people in Gaza – where 83% of food aid needed is currently not reaching them – and over three quarters of a million in Sudan, are currently starving as the deadly impact of wars on food will likely be felt for generations.”

The report also found that the majority of the countries studied (34 out of 54) are rich in natural resources, relying heavily on exporting raw products. For example, 95% of Sudan’s export earnings come from gold and livestock, 87% of South Sudan’s come from petroleum products, and nearly 70% of Burundi’s come from coffee.

In Central America, meanwhile, mining operations have led to violent conflicts, uprooting people from their homes as they no longer become able to live in degraded and polluted environments.

Oxfam argues that currently peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction efforts are too often based on encouraging more foreign investment and export-related economies. However, this focus on economic liberalization can instead create more inequality, suffering and the potential for conflict to resume.

“It is no coincidence that the lethal combination of war, displacement and hunger has often occurred in countries rich in natural resources. The exploitation of these raw commodities often means more violence, inequality, instability, and renewed conflict. Too often, large-scale private investment—both foreign and domestic —has also added to political and economic instabilities in these countries, where investors seize control over land and water resources forcing people out of their homes,” said Farr.

Conflict often compounds other factors like climate shocks, economic instability and inequalities to devastate people’s livelihoods. For example, climate shocks like droughts and floods, coupled with the surge in global food prices associated with pandemic shut-downs and additional food-chain disruptions connected to the Russia-Ukraine war, have fueled the hunger crises in East and Southern Africa.

Many of those fleeing are women and children. Aisha Ibrahim, age 37, told Oxfam that she had to walk four days with her four children, leaving their home in Sudan for Joda, across the border in South Sudan. She left her husband behind to protect their home. “I used to live in a proper home. I could never imagine myself in this situation,” she said.

The international community’s pledge of “zero hunger” by 2030 remains out of touch. Oxfam says that states and institutions globally, including the UN Security Council, must hold to account those committing “starvation crimes” in accordance with international law.

“To break the vicious cycle of food insecurity and conflict, global leaders must tackle head-on the conditions that breed conflict: the colonial legacies, injustices, human rights violations, and inequalities – rather than offering quick band-aid solutions.”

“We cannot end conflict by simply injecting foreign investments in conflict-torn countries, without uprooting the deep inequalities, generational grievances, and human rights violations that fuel those conflicts. Peace efforts must be coupled with investment in social protection, and social cohesion building. Economic solutions must prioritize fair trade and sustainable food systems,” said Farr.

Notes to the Editor

  • Read Oxfam’s report, “Food Wars”
  • There has been an alarming rise in global conflict – not seen in decades – both in terms of number of wars and the death toll from conflict. Source: PRIO and UPSALA
  • Oxfam analysed 54 active conflict, refugee-hosting, and conflict legacy countries with populations in 2023 facing “crisis-level” acute food insecurity, i.e., at Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3 or higher. In total, nearly 278 million people in these countries faced crisis-level hunger in 2023, accounting for 99% of the global population at IPC 3+ (281.6 million people).
  • Oxfam has calculated the hunger mortality figure based on the crude death rate in the Integrated Food Insecurity Technical Manual, and the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2024 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3 or higher in conflict-affected countries. This was between 7,784 and 21,406 deaths per day or (5 -15 per minute). Source: GRFC 2024
  • In all 54 countries, conflict was a major cause of food insecurity, although in some, weather extremes or economic shocks may have been the principal driver.
  • 34 of 54 studied countries rely mainly on primary product exports, such as food, agriculture, and extractive industry products, or light assembly and low-end manufactures.
  • Natural resources exports figures are based on Trading Economics. (2023). Sudan Exports; World Bank. (2022). World Bank Report: With peace and accountability, oil and agriculture can support early recovery in South Sudan. Press Release, June 15; and Trading Economics. (2024) on Burundi Exports.; and USDA (US Department of Agriculture) Foreign Agriculture Service. (2022) on Ukraine Agricultural Production and Trade.
  • Food insecurity figures for Gaza are from IPC 2024, and for Sudan from IPC April report.
  • Recent analysis from aid agencies found 83% of food aid is not making it into the Gaza Strip
  • Globally, 117.3m people are forcibly displaced, of which 68.3m are internally displaced by conflict in 2023, that’s 90% of all IDPs (75.9m), Source: UNHCR 2024 and Migration Data Portal

Contact information:

Rachel Schaevitz — rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz

South Sudan: Hunger crisis escalates

People in Pibor County resort to eating wild vegetables as hunger crisis escalates 

Upcoming rainy season set to reach record-high levels and will likely decimate crops. 

People in South Sudan’s Pibor county are forced to survive on wild vegetables and desert dates as the number of people dying from starvation rises. With torrential rains halting aid flights, the situation could get much worse quickly, warned Oxfam today.  

 More than half the population – over 7 million people – are already facing extreme hunger, including nearly 79,000 people facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity, which is more than double that of last year. 

Dr. Manenji Mangundu, Oxfam South Sudan Country Director said: “The scenes of suffering are heart-wrenching. Thousands of people both young and old are hungry and children severely malnourished; many people are going for days without anything to eat. Just this month alone, (July) more than 12 people died from starvation” 

 “The situation will be aggravated by flooding that has started. Record-level flooding is forecasted for this rainy season (June- September), and likely to decimate crops and probably push approximately 3.3 million already vulnerable people to a breaking point.” 

South Sudan continues to suffer from climate induced challenges-like flooding and drought. Over 70% of the country, including Pibor region, has been affected by floods for the past 6 consecutive years. This is aggravated by the economic crisis, ongoing conflict in neighbouring Sudan fueling hunger levels in the majority of communities within South Sudan. 

 Moreover, these drivers have together forced the plummeting of the South Sudanese currency and triggered the highest real food inflation since independence (164%) according to the World Bank, making it harder for people to access food. The prices of staple foods such as wheat, sorghum, oil, and flour have all increased, with some more than tripled since March this year. 

 Adau Nyok, living in the capital of Juba said: “Three months ago, I used to buy 10kg of flour for 3500 SSP ($3.50 NZD). Now it costs me 15,000 SSP ($15.75 USD). Unfortunately, the prices keep rising and we can no longer afford it due to lack of access to cash.”   

As Oxfam and partners provide life-saving interventions like food, cash, clean water supplies and sanitation in South Sudan, Oxfam staff have heard harrowing stories from families who are losing their children due to hunger.  Rebecca Korok Nyarek , who lost her young nephew, said: 

“I lost my nephew because of hunger. He was just 15 years old. There is no food at home. People are starving, and when you go out to the bushes in search of food, sometimes you will get something small to eat, even wild fruits are no longer available because of the rains and that’s how we sleep at night.’’  

Fourteen months into the conflict in Sudan, over 750,000 returnees and refugees have fled to South Sudan where theyfacing catastrophic conditions. Transit centers in Renk and Malakal, designed for 4,000 people, are now sheltering more people than five times their capacity.  

The situation is particularly dire for the refugees and returnees who are fleeing into South Sudan co-habiting with communities already facing extreme hunger while funding is very limited. South Sudan appeal is at 28%, seven months into the year.  

Malnutrition is increasing rapidly among children in the overcrowded temporary transit camps along the Sudan-South Sudan borders, exacerbating the crisis, while aid agencies are pulling out due to lack of funding.  

Aisha, a Sudanese refugee from Khartoum fled her home with her children after her husband was killed at his shop in the city:  “We have arrived here and although the sounds of the guns are no longer there, our children are hungry. Majority of the nights, we sleep on empty stomachs and now with the rains, our tents are sometimes washed away”, said Aisha. 

Oxfam urgently needs $15 million to scale up its operations and save lives of vulnerable children and women affected by the conflict, floods and diseases. 

“Failing to respond when people are starving is a moral failing that must not continue. Without urgent assistance now we risk many more lives. Humanitarian assistance delayed is aid denied, donors must act now” 

 

Note to editors 

  • IPC Figures- An estimated 79,000 people are in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe) in April-July 2024.  
  • According to a recent World Bank report South Sudan now holds the highest real food inflation rate in the world at 164 per cent. Real food inflation is defined as food inflation minus overall inflation. 
  • Oxfam calculated the price of flour using the official exchange rates of the Central Bank of South Sudan 

Oxfam Reaction to the UN State of Food Security and Nutrition Report 2024

In reaction to the UN’s 2024 edition of “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI) report, which showed that one out of 11 people in the world, and one out of every five in Africa, may have faced hunger in 2023, Eric Munoz, Oxfam’s food policy expert, said:

“Global hunger remains stuck at shamefully high levels, driven by many reasons that together become convenient excuses for our governments to avoid decisive action. We grow enough food to feed people everywhere in the world and there are solutions to eradicate this terrible scourge.

“Countries facing high levels of hunger tend to be poor, highly-indebted, even exploited. They are also the most vulnerable to climate-related and economic shocks. Nearly 28 million people in East Africa are severely hungry because of worsening floods and droughts, conflict and poverty, while Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan struggle under a debt burden of $65 billion. They also need $7.49 billion in humanitarian assistance, but donors have to date met less than 20 percent of this. They are being short-changed at every turn.

“The UN today identifies a hole of trillions of dollars needed to end hunger.  Only bold political action can fill this gap. Private financing can be a partial solution, but runs the risk of increasing inequalities and sidelining local communities. More public funding is required especially into smallholder farmers in poorer countries and stronger social protection schemes, wide-scale debt relief, and for rich countries to meet their humanitarian and climate finance pledges.

“The world’s poorest people are paying the highest price of hunger. We need deeper, structural policy and social change to address all of the drivers of hunger, including economic injustice, climate change and conflict. We support Brazil’s efforts, as part of its G20 presidency, to form the new Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.”

Contact

Rachel Schaevitz, rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz  

Notes:

Oxfam reaction to the Global Report on Food Crises 2024

Today’s “Global Report on Food Crises” (GRFC), led by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), says that 281.6 million people across 59 countries are now experiencing acute hunger – 24 million additional people over last year.

Reacting to the report, Oxfam Global Food and Economic Security Lead, Emily Farr, said:

“The global hunger crisis is fundamentally a moral crisis. It is unforgivable that over 281 million people are suffering acute hunger while the world’s richest continue to make extraordinary profits, including the same aerospace and defence corporations helping to fuel conflict, the main-driver of hunger.

“The top 100 arms companies have hoarded nearly $600 billion in revenues just in 2022 – enough to cover the UN global humanitarian appeal almost 13 times.

“The number of people on the brink of famine has almost doubled since last year, the majority of whom are in Gaza where children are already dying of malnutrition and disease as a result of the Israeli government’s policy of using starvation as a weapon of war.

“We cannot drastically change course without a global awakening. States must prioritise justice and peace over politics, and radically reform global peace and security bodies to protect international law rather than perpetuate impunity.

“Governments must also rehaul our global food system, tax the rich to invest in the public majority – the small farmers, workers and vulnerable communities – and support green economies.”

 

Notes to the Editors

  • Read The Global Report for Food Crises (GRFC) 2024
  • The increase of 23.8 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC3+) is partly due to greater analysis coverage and country inclusion (1.1 billion population in 2022 to 1.3 billion population in 2023). The net increase is 17.5 million people in IPC3 (see Technical Notes for comparability issues). Source: GRFC 2024.
  • Over 705 000 people in five countries were projected to be in Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) in 2023 – the highest number in GRFC reporting and almost double that of 2022. Source: GRFC 2024.
  • The Global Report on Food Crises is an annual report published by The Food Security Information Network and the 16 partner agencies of the Global Network Against Food Crises.
  • The top 100 arms-producing and military services companies have made a total revenue of $597 billion in 2022. Source: SPIRI 2023 The Global Appeal for Humanitarian Response in 2024 was $46 billion. Source: UNOCHA
  • The escalation of hostilities in Palestine (Gaza Strip) in late 2023 has created the most severe food crisis in IPC and GRFC history with the entire population of 2.2 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity, and half of the population (about 1.1 million people) estimated to be experiencing catastrophic acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 5) Source: IPC report in December 2023 and March 2024.

 

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz | rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz | +64 27 959 5555

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Oxfam is a worldwide development organisation that mobilises the power of people against injustice. Oxfam Aotearoa is a registered charity with the New Zealand Charities Register (registration CC24641). Donations are tax refundable.

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