Interactive | Carbon footprint of billionaires

A billionaire emits a million times more greenhouse gases than an average person in a year, according to a new Oxfam report

A billionaire emits a million times more greenhouse gases than an average person in a year. The world's 125 richest billionaires cumulatively yield an annual average of three million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, which is equal to the annual carbon emissions of France, a nation of 67 million people. These findings, published in a new report by Oxfam, highlight the contribution of the world's richest in generating greenhouse gases.

The report showed that the world's wealthiest individuals fund 393 million tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per year. Their investments in polluting industries such as fossil fuels and cement are also double the average for the S&P Group of 500 companies.

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Apart from their investments in polluting industries, their luxurious lifestyles - due to their frequent use of private jets and yachts - add to their carbon footprint, the total amount of greehouse gases emitted by an individual. "These few billionaires together have ‘investment emissions’ that equal the carbon footprints of entire countries like France, Egypt or Argentina," said Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Lead at Oxfam.

"Emissions from billionaire lifestyles – due to their frequent use of private jets and yachts – are thousands of times the average person, which is already completely unacceptable," said Dabi. "But if we look at emissions from their investments, then their carbon emissions are over a million times higher," said.

Let's take a look at the carbon footprint of billionaires:

A calculation by The Conversation on the carbon footprint of moguls based on their activities such as travel via vehicle, yacht, aircraft pointed out that the highest polluting billionaire was Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, with the majority of his carbon emission — 22,440 tonnes — coming from superyachts.

The rising level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been a point of concern for decades now and curbing carbon footprint has been looked at as a way of combating the onslaught of heat-trapping gases.

Dabi, in the report, called for billionaire investors at the top of the corporate pyramid to take responsibility for driving climate breakdown.

"We need COP27 to expose and change the role that big corporates and their rich investors are playing in profiting from the pollution that is driving the global climate crisis. They can’t be allowed to hide or greenwash. We need governments to tackle this urgently by publishing emission figures for the richest people, regulating investors and corporates to slash carbon emissions and taxing wealth and polluting investments," said Dabi.