Billionaires and Climate Change

With news of decreased farm outputs, flooding due to sea levels rising, and abnormally strong typhoons hitting the country, climate change has been pointed out as the cause. A report released by the World Bank stated that climate change can have negative effects on the Philippine economy, cutting the gross domestic product (GDP) by an estimated 13.6% by the year 2040 if there is inaction by the private sector and the government.

With this, despite individual and community efforts to combat climate change, it is still not enough. In a report conducted and released by the international charity, Oxfam just last November, it was discovered that investments of the 125 richest billionaires emit a total of 393 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, which is equal to the carbon emissions of France.

This same report shows that investments of the world’s richest billionaires emit a yearly average of 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per person. This number is a million times more than the average 2.76 tonnes of carbon dioxide for the bottom 90%. On average, wage earners who make less than €173,000 belong to this bottom 90%.

“These few billionaires together have ‘investment emissions’ that equal the carbon footprints of entire countries like France, Egypt, or Argentina,”  mentioned Oxfam’s Climate Change Lead, Nafkote Dabi.

“The major and growing responsibility of wealthy people for overall emissions is rarely discussed or considered in climate policy-making. This has to change. These billionaire investors at the top of the corporate pyramid have a huge responsibility for driving climate breakdown. They have escaped accountability for too long,” she adds.

“Emissions from billionaire lifestyles, their private jets, and yachts are thousands of times the average person, which is already completely unacceptable. But if we look at emissions from their investments, then their carbon emissions are over a million times higher,”

It is about time we hold these billionaires accountable for the massive impact their business practices and decisions affect countries and lives, especially when they profit from the demise of the environment.

Sources: CNBC, EuroNews, Oxfam, Fortune, Business World,