New Oxfam report reveals how the climate crisis is deepening inequality around the world
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An Oxfam report found that the richest 0.1 per cent globally emit more than the world’s poorest 44 per cent combined. In total, the ultra-rich – comprising eight million people – emit more than three times as much as the entire population of sub-Saharan Africa (1.3 billion people).
The report also found that a person in the richest 0.1 per cent contributes 125 times more than the average person to extreme heat events, almost 400 times more than someone in the poorest 50 per cent.
Just one year of emissions from the richest one per cent will cause 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths. The ultra-rich are also responsible for 20 per cent of global warming since 1990.
The report’s analysis of private jets, estimated to be used only by the richest 0.003 per cent of the world’s population, shows how planet-polluting this mode of transport can be. In 2025 alone, private jets emitted 16 million tonnes of CO₂ – emissions that would take 80 million trees to offset.
Combined, the world’s private jets emit more in two seconds than someone in the poorest 50 per cent will emit in a year.
The Oxfam report also detailed how unequal the impacts of climate change are. Between 2014 and 2050, the climate crisis will displace one billion people, around 10 per cent of the world’s population, most of whom live in the Global South. In addition, flood-related deaths are seven times higher in more unequal countries.
Lower-income groups are, overall, more exposed to climate disasters because they live in areas more likely to be affected. They are also more vulnerable, with fewer resources and savings to help them recover from disaster. In contrast, wealthier individuals can live in safer locations and in less vulnerable homes that protect them from climate disasters.
For example, many rich people were able to avoid the devastation in the 2025 wildfires on the US West Coast, taking advantage of early warning systems to evacuate via helicopter, while families in Altadena – a historically Black and brown middle-class community – lacked insurance or had only partial coverage.
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Other, more everyday examples of climate inequality also appear in modern society. These include food price shocks that leave the wealthier even richer. Since 2020, food industry billionaires have increased their wealth by more than $130billion as multiple food chain crises have hit worldwide.
To build an equal and sustainable future, the Oxfam report states steps that can be taken. These include curbing the carbon-polluting emissions of the super-rich through higher taxes; requiring rich countries that caused the climate crisis to provide the funding the rest of the world needs for adaptation; and ensuring governments can curb excessive corporate power and ensure climate responses prioritise human need over shareholder profit.
