The rich are primarily responsible for the climate crisis

Berlin - The development organization Oxfam is denouncing the rich and super-rich around the world as climate polluters.

Oxfam has been warning emphatically for years about rising inequality in the world, but also in Germany.
Oxfam has been warning emphatically for years about rising inequality in the world, but also in Germany.  © Sven Hoppe/dpa

A study by the organization shows that "on average, 125 billionaires are responsible for as many emissions due to their investments as one million people from the poorer 90 percent of the world's population. This can be read in the new Oxfam report Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world's richest people.

"The emissions that billionaires cause through their own consumption with private jets, super yachts and luxury villas alone amount to a thousand times the global per capita emissions," said Manuel Schmitt, Social Inequality Officer at Oxfam Germany.

"If you also look at the emissions caused by their investments, their greenhouse gas emissions are many times higher. The 125 billionaires surveyed have combined 'investment emissions' equivalent to the greenhouse gas footprint of entire countries," explained Schmitt and suggested: "The investments of the super-rich must be taxed and investments regulated in such a way that investments that destroy the planet are no longer worthwhile."

Governments should also do more in this regard and require companies to be more accountable, transparent and radically reduce their emissions. In addition, companies and their owners should be asked to pay if they are "disproportionately responsible for the climate crisis". Because then it would also be their duty to finance the management of the consequential damage.

The problem with this is that the responsibility of the super-rich for the climate crisis is hardly taken into accountin politics.

Even the richest Germans are harming the climate

A poor life: A woman sits next to her two emaciated goats in a desert area near Bandar Beyla in the north-east of the autonomous region of Puntland in Somalia.
A poor life: A woman sits next to her two emaciated goats in a desert area near Bandar Beyla in the north-east of the autonomous region of Puntland in Somalia.  © Ben Curtis/AP/dpa

But what is the situation in Germany? In short: no better! Here too, the richest people are primarily responsible for climate-damaging greenhouse gases, which are often higher than the average, according to a data analysis by taz.

The report also states that the poorest people in Germany emitted just over three tons of CO2 per year in 2019. The richest one percent emitted around 105 tons, almost 35 times as much.

If we look at a smaller group of particularly rich people, the inequality increases further. According to "taz", the emissions of the richest 0.001 percent in Germany - around 800 people - are estimated at 11,700 tons per year. A thousand times the German average!

Also remarkable: emissions in Germany fell by almost 34 percent between 1991 and 2019. However, this is mainly due to the poorer two thirds of the population. The last third, the rich, on the other hand, have made below-average savings.

Overall, people in Germany who contribute less to the climate crisis are taking more responsibility for climate protection.