rich countries

Takers not Makers: The unjust poverty and unearned wealth from colonialism

January 21, 2025

Billionaire wealth has risen three times faster in 2024 than 2023. Five trillionaires are now expected within a decade. Meanwhile, crises of economy, climate and conflict mean the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990.

Most billionaire wealth is taken, not earned – 60% comes from either inheritance, cronyism and corruption or monopoly power. Our deeply unequal world has a long history of colonial domination which has largely benefited the richest people. The poorest, racialized people, women and marginalized groups have and continue to be systematically exploited at huge human cost.

Today’s world remains colonial in many ways. The average Belgian has 180 times more voting power in the World Bank than the average Ethiopian. This system still extracts wealth from the Global South to the superrich 1% in the Global North at a rate of US$30million an hour.

This must be reversed. Reparations must be made to those who were brutally enslaved and colonised. Our modern-day colonial economic system must be made radically more equal to end poverty. The cost should be borne by the richest people who benefit the most.

Read the report here.

Oxfam says: COP29 deal is a “global Ponzi scheme”

November 25, 2024

Responding to the COP29 climate finance agreement, in which rich countries agree to mobilize $300 billion a year to help Global South countries cope with warming temperatures and switch to renewable energy, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, Nafkote Dabi, said:

“The terrible verdict from the Baku climate talks shows that rich countries view the Global South as ultimately expendable, like pawns on a chessboard. The $300 billion so-called ‘deal’ that poorer countries have been bullied into accepting is unserious and dangerous —a soulless triumph for the rich, but a genuine disaster for our planet and communities who are being flooded, starved, and displaced today by climate breakdown. And as for promises of future funding? They’re just as hollow as the deal itself.”

Oxfam Aotearoa’s Climate Justice Lead Nick Henry said: “The failure to meet the global need for climate finance is a failure of empathy from the leaders of rich countries.”

“New Zealand’s climate grants are an essential lifeline for our Pacific region and a positive example of public grants, not debt. Our government needs to continue ramping up this finance to at least meet our fair share of the new global goal.”

Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, Nafkote Dabi continues, “The money on the table is not only a pittance in comparison to what’s really needed –it’s not even real “money”, by and large. Rather, it’s a motley mix of loans and privatized investment –a global Ponzi scheme that the private equity vultures and public relations people will now exploit. The destruction of our planet is avoidable, but not with this shabby and dishonorable deal. The richest polluters need to wise up —and pay up.”

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz in Auckland, NZ | [email protected] | 027 959 5555
Jeshua Hope in Suva, Fiji | [email protected] | +679 7500889

COP29 must deliver more than “threadbare promises”

November 22, 2024

In response to the latest climate finance draft text at COP29, Oxfam International’s Climate Justice Lead, Safa’ Al Jayoussi, said:

“COP29 must do more than simply repeat the same threadbare promises. Rich countries have spent decades now stalling and blocking genuine progress on climate finance. This has left the Global South suffering the most catastrophic consequences of a climate crisis they did not create. The draft text scandalously misses the crucial element of declaring a clear public commitment to a new climate finance goal.

“Rich countries, those most responsible for climate chaos, owe $5 trillion in annual climate debt and reparations. This funding must come as grants-based public financing to help communities that need it the most mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change and recover from loss and damage. Anything less will simply be a failure.

“This is not charity – it is an established obligation under international law. It is the bare minimum needed to shield frontline communities from devastation, allow them to rebuild after disasters pass, and ensure their just transition to a sustainable future. The next few days are a credibility test for these climate negotiations and for COP itself. The time for stalling is over. If rich countries don’t deliver, they will go down in history as having chosen profit over people and complacency over courage.”

Notes to editors

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.

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz in Auckland, NZ I [email protected]

Jeshua Hope in Suva, Fiji | [email protected] | +679 7500889

Global climate activists rally at Baku’s Olympic stadium with bold “Pay Up!” message

November 14, 2024

Global climate activists today gathered at Baku’s Olympic stadium —the venue for the United Nations climate talks— to urge world leaders to commit to a new, ambitious climate finance deal. The message “Pay Up!” unfolded across the stadium seats, in perfect sight from the COP29 presidency offices located on the opposite side of the arena.

COP29 has been dubbed the “finance COP” because setting a new goal for global climate finance and laying out a plan for achieving it is the big battleground issue. Activists and civil society organizations call for the new goal to drastically increase from its present $100 billion a year to $5 trillion a year in climate debt and reparations and to protect communities facing the worst impacts of the crisis.

“As communities in the Global South bear the brunt of climate disasters, it’s past time for the Global North to pay their share —without saddling us with more loans and debt,” said Marinel Ubaldo, a Make Rich Polluters Pay activist and delegate from the Philippines. “Real climate action means financing solutions that uplift, empower, and sustain our communities, free from the chains of fossil fuels and debt traps.”

Global climate policy experts underscore this year’s conference as one of the most critical since COP26 in 2021.Without more ambitious and urgent action, the world could warm by a terrifying 3.1°C by the end of the century.

Activists are also calling to make rich polluters pay through taxes on fossil fuel-intensive industries and the super-rich. Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires emit more carbon pollution through their investments, private jets and yachts in 90 minutes than the average person does in their lifetime.

“The world needs leaders who are committed to justice and fairness; this starts with honoring climate finance commitments, taxing the super-rich, phasing out fossil fuels, and holding polluters accountable,” Ubaldo added. “The climate crisis doesn’t pause for politics or profit —it demands swift, decisive, and equitable action now.”

Notes to editors

The organisers are a cross-constituency of climate groups, including Oxfam.

Oxfam’s report, “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.

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz/ [email protected]

Carbon Inequality Kills

October 29, 2024

The only way to beat climate breakdown and deliver social justice is to radically reduce inequality. This report reveals the catastrophic climate impacts of the richest individuals in the world, and proposes taking urgent action to protect people and the planet.

What little carbon dioxide we can still safely emit is being burned indiscriminately by the superrich. We share new evidence of how the yachts, jets and polluting investments of 50 of the world’s richest billionaires are accelerating the climate crisis. Oxfam’s research shows that the emissions of the world’s super-rich 1% are causing economic losses of trillions of dollars; contributing to huge crop losses; and leading to millions of excess deaths.

As global temperatures continue to rise, risking the lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty and precarity, we must act now to curb the emissions of the super-rich, and make rich polluters pay.

Read the report here.

Former heads of state and government call on G20 leaders to back global deal to tax the ultra-rich

July 12, 2024

Close to 20 former heads of state and government of G20 and higher-income countries, including former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, former Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Löfven, former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gilliard, former Prime Minister of France Dominique de Villepin and former President of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, called on current G20 leaders —including US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer— to support a “new global deal to tax the world’s ultra-rich individuals” in an open letter published today.

Ensuring the ultra-rich pay their fair share “would reduce inequality and raise trillions of dollars necessary for investments in industrial policy and a just transition.”

The former leaders state in the letter that “Brazil’s G20 proposal underlines the opportunity to write a new story about taxation for the first time in a generation” at a time when “billionaires, globally, are paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5 percent of their wealth.”

The Brazilian government, in its presidency of the G20, is championing a new global tax standard on taxing the ultra-rich. The letter by former heads of state and government of G20 countries comes alongside talks across G20 capitals to back the deal, and ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers
and central bankers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 25 July. Governments including Brazil, South Africa, France and Spain have already voiced their support. The leaders write: “rare is a proposal that asks us as former leaders to rally in unity —and that we recognize as politically possible. This, clearly, is one.”

Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Member of Club de Madrid, said: “Brazil is to be commended for bringing the issue of a global tax standard on the world’s billionaires to the G20 table. This builds on an earlier G20 decision to support a global minimum tax of fifteen per cent on multinational companies. The latter initiative took years to come to fruition. Both initiatives build global cooperation to tackle tax avoidance.”

The letter, which was coordinated by Club de Madrid and Oxfam, warns that “the share of income of the top 1 percent of earners has risen by 45 percent over four decades while top tax rates on their incomes were cut by roughly a third.”

Note to editors:

Full open letter and signatories is available on Club Madrid’s site.

For more information:

Rachel Schaevitz/ [email protected]