Ultra-rich 0.1% produce more carbon pollution than nearly half of humanity while cashing in on the climate disasters they create

• Person in the richest 0.1% has contributed nearly 400 times more to extreme heatwaves than someone in the poorest half of humanity.
• In the U.S., someone in the richest 0.1% emits 48 times more CO2 than the average person.
• Oxfam’s new “Destroy & Rebuild Index” exposes how super-rich investors backing fossil fuels and other high-polluting industries are also profiting from disaster preparedness and clean-up.

The world’s richest 0.1% (8 million people) produces more carbon pollution than the poorest 44% of the world’s population (3.5 billion people) combined, reveals new Oxfam analysis. Published ahead of the UN climate summit (COP31) in Türkiye, the report exposes how the world's super-rich are driving climate breakdown through their outsized emissions, while shielding themselves from the consequences and, increasingly, profiting from the destruction.

A person in the richest 0.1% globally has contributed nearly 400 times more to today’s extreme heatwaves than someone in the poorest 50%. Collectively, this small group of people produces over three times more carbon pollution than the entire population of Sub-Saharan Africa (1.3 billion people).

The U.S. exemplifies these extremes:

• On average, someone in the richest 0.1% emits 48 times more CO2 than the average person in the U.S.
• The country’s richest 0.1% (333,271 people) emit 108 times more CO2 per person than the poorest half of the population (166.6 million people).
• In just under four months (118.3 days), someone in the richest 0.1% emits more CO2 than someone in the poorest half of the U.S. has emitted over the last 30 years.
• In the U.S. alone, the cost of climate impacts reached almost $1 trillion in the 12 months between May 2024 and April 2025, equivalent to 3% of GDP.

"The climate crisis is an inequality crisis at its core. While ordinary people are forced to grapple with the consequences of emergencies they bear little responsibility in fueling, billionaires are busy outrunning the reality they and their private jets created. Mark Zuckerberg can hunker down in his Hawaiian bunker at the first sign of chaos, but the rest of us don’t have that luxury. Addressing this glaring inequality is the first step to mitigating climate disaster, and that starts with making ultra-rich polluters pay their fair share,” said Rachel Carle, senior advisor on climate justice at Oxfam America.

Combining carbon inequality data with cutting-edge climate attribution models, Oxfam has found that, globally:

• The richest 1% are responsible for 20% of global warming since 1990 – 100 times more, per person, than someone in the poorest half of humanity.
• Just one year of emissions by the richest 1% will cause 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths. 78% of these deaths will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries, despite these countries being responsible for 8% of global emissions.
• The emissions of the richest 1% will cause nearly $53 trillion in damage by 2050.

Used exclusively by the super-rich, private aviation remains one of the clearest examples of extreme carbon inequality. New analysis by Oxfam of private jet tracking data finds that:

• Combined, private jets globally emit more carbon pollution in two seconds than someone in the poorest half of humanity emits in a year.
• All U.S.-owned private jets combined emitted more CO2 in 1 minute in 2025 than someone in the poorest half of the U.S. population will emit in an entire year.

While the super-rich are responsible for a disproportionate share of carbon pollution, it is ordinary people who bear the brunt of the resulting floods, fires and famine. The super-rich buy safety through private insurance and homes in safer, cooler places. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, built a 5.5 km² estate on the Hawaiian island of Kauai that includes a bunker equipped with its own energy and food supplies. For everyone else, climate disasters mean destroyed homes and crops, depleted savings, and lost livelihoods. This leaves people even more exposed when the next disaster hits, deepening the inequality that made them far more vulnerable to climate disasters in the first place. By 2050, as many as 1 billion people (around 10% of the world’s population) could be displaced by the climate crisis. Most of those displaced will be in the Global South.

Oxfam’s report also shows how climate disasters have become an increasingly lucrative business. The global disaster recovery market is projected to grow from $70 billion to $92 billion annually by 2029.

Oxfam’s new Destroy & Rebuild Index identifies 217 corporations profiting from industries that fuel climate breakdown as well as disaster preparedness, recovery and reconstruction.

BlackRock and Vanguard are invested in 92% of the corporations in the index. Their combined investments total more than $1 trillion.

The report also warns that climate disasters are increasingly exploited to push policies that deepen inequality, including the privatization of climate action and public services, land grabs, deregulation and tax breaks benefiting the super-rich. The result is a vicious cycle of injustice: deaths from flooding are seven times higher in more unequal countries.

Oxfam is calling on governments meeting at COP31 to:

• Make rich polluters pay to significantly and rapidly curb their carbon emissions, including through permanent wealth and income taxes, a permanent tax on fossil fuel corporations, and punitive taxes on high-emitting luxury items like private jets.
• Substantially increase climate finance for the Global South, prioritizing public, grant-based finance rather than loans that deepen debt. The amount for adaptation should be tripled by 2035.
• Radically reduce inequality within and between countries, including through climate-resilient public infrastructure and public services.
• End profiteering from climate disasters. Governments need to curb corporate power in emergency response, reconstruction, and food systems during disasters.

/ENDS

Notes to editors:

Download Oxfam's report, "Disaster Divide: How climate chaos deepens inequality and enriches the few."

Oxfam’s analysis finds that 1.18 million or 78% of excess deaths due to heat will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Since 1990, carbon emissions from the richest 1% have caused global economic output to drop by $2.9 trillion. By 2050, this will rise to $52.6 trillion, equivalent to a 0.5% loss of global cumulative GDP over that period. The heaviest economic toll will fall on the countries least responsible for climate change.

According to the International Organization for Migration, as many as 1 billion people could be displaced by the climate crisis by 2050. The frequency and intensity of these events is rising as a direct result of climate change.