International
Carbon emissions of richest 1% increase hunger, poverty and deaths, says Oxfam
Consumption of world’s wealthiest people also making it increasingly difficult to limit global heating to 1.5C
A yacht, reportedly being built for Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, on a wharf in Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands. Photograph: Guy Fleury/AP |
The high carbon emissions of the world’s richest 1% are worsening hunger, poverty and excess deaths, a report has found.
Owing to luxury yachts, private jets and investments in polluting industries, the consumption of the world’s wealthiest people is also making it increasingly difficult to limit global heating to 1.5C.
If everyone on Earth emitted planet-warming gases at the same rate as the average billionaire, the remaining carbon budget to stay within 1.5C would be gone in less than two days, the Oxfam analysis said, rather than current estimates of four years if carbon emissions remain as they are today. [continue]