[PDF]Climate Equality Report (2023)

CLIMATE
EQUALITY:


A PLANET FOR THE 99% OXFAM


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THE WORLD FACES TWIN CRISES OF CLIMATE BREAKDOWN AND RUNAWAY INEQUALITY.
The richest people, corporations and countries are destroying the world with their
huge carbon emissions. Meanwhile, people living in poverty, those experiencing
marginalization, and countries in the Global South are those impacted the hardest.
Women and girls, Indigenous Peoples, people living in poverty and other groups
experiencing discrimination are particularly at a disadvantage. The consequences
of climate breakdown are felt in all parts of the world and by most people, yet only
the richest people and countries have the wealth, power and influence to protect
themselves. With that power comes huge responsibility.


If no action is taken, the richest will continue to burn through the carbon we have left
to use while keeping the global temperature below the safe limit of 1.5°C, destroying
any chance of ending poverty and ensuring equality. The world needs an equal
transformation. Only a radical reduction in inequality, transformative climate action
and fundamentally shifting our economic goals as a society can save our planet while
ensuring wellbeing for all.


Cover photo: People in a waterside house raised on stilts in an informal settlement in Manila.
© Robin Hammond/Panos


CLIMATE EQUALITY: A PLANET FOR THE 99%


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FOREWORDS


Greta Thunberg is a climate activist who
is known for challenging world leaders to
take immediate action for climate change.


We are in an emergency. This year is on
track to become the hottest on record.
Entire ecosystems are collapsing. People
are dying. Meanwhile, the world’s richest
continue to get richer, exploiting people
and the planet for their own gain.


This report from Oxfam makes it glaringly
clear: these are not separate issues.
Climate breakdown and inequality are
linked together and fuel each other. If we
are to overcome one, we must overcome
both.


What we are seeing now is only the very Greta Thunberg. © Andreas Hellberg.

beginning of a changing climate caused FUbeneCUnGet EGET =an NiDee|

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gases. We are not equally to blame for

these emissions, nor for the damage they cause.


The richest 1% of the world’s population are responsible for as much carbon pollution
as the people who make up the poorest two-thirds of humanity. They have stolen

our planet’s resources to fuel their lavish lifestyles. A short trip on a private jet will
produce more carbon than the average person emits all year. They are sacrificing us at
the altar of their greed.


This report reveals a perverse reality: those who have done the least to cause the
climate crisis are the ones who are suffering the most. And those who have done the
most will likely suffer the least.


The richest can insulate themselves from the damage they cause. They can escape
to their multiple, air-conditioned homes. They can protect themselves against
damage to their property. While those at the front lines, who are suffering because
of the excesses of the richest, have nowhere to hide from the drought, flooding and
relentless heat. Those with wealth and power have convinced themselves that some
lives are worth more than others. Their lives do not matter more.


The people most responsible for the climate crisis — mainly white, privileged men —are
also the ones who have been given a leading role in getting us out of it. | have found
myself with a front-row seat in the world’s corridors of power — at the UN, the World
Economic Forum and in global climate negotiations. Here, | have seen first-hand that
the people destroying our planet, the people at the core of the climate crisis, the


people heavily invested in fossil fuels, the people with the greatest wealth: somehow
these people are the ones we rely on to solve our problems.


How have we left the culprits in charge when there is so much at stake? Why are they
in charge when time and again they have shown us that they prioritize their greed and
short-term economic profits above people and planet? Is it any wonder progress is so
slow?


This injustice must end. With the policies we currently have in place, we are heading
for 3.2° of global warming by the end of the century. This will result in disaster.


If we are to have a chance of minimizing further irreparable damage to the planet, we
must choose now. Either we safeguard living conditions for all future generations or
we let a few very rich people maintain their destructive lifestyles and preserve an
economic system geared towards short-term economic growth and shareholder profit.


We must educate ourselves about the causes of this crisis. We must make
fundamental changes to the way our societies operate. We must stop pursuing infinite
growth on a finite planet. We must ensure that those with greater responsibility pay


the highest price. And we must move towards an equal transformation of our societies,


which prioritizes the planet and all of humanity.


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Njoki Njehu is a feminist and activist, and
the Pan-Africa Regional Coordinator for
Fight Inequality Alliance, Nairobi, Kenya


| learned to fight for justice at my mother’s
knee. She, Lilian Njehu, was a co-founder
of the Greenbelt Movement of Kenya
alongside Prof. Wangari Maathai and
others. My mother properly schooled

me on the fight for women’s rights and
dignity. So, | have been fighting against
inequality my whole life.


; ; ; ; Njoki Njehu, Pan-Africa Regional Coordinator,
With the Fight Inequality Alliance, | have Fight Inequality Alliance


marched with young people and women

from the informal settlements of Dandora, Mukuru, Mathare, Kibera and the peri-urban
areas west of Nairobi. With African rural women, as part of the Kilimanjaro Initiative

for Women’s Land Rights and the Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center, | have
marched and continue to fight for women’s dignity and land rights, food sovereignty,
and for a just world. | have had the privilege to work and march with so many wonderful
comrades fighting inequality across the world, from Kenya to Mexico, to the Philippines
to Haiti and the United States.


As the leader of 50 Years is Enough Network, we marched on the streets of Seattle,
of Washington, DC, of Genoa. We marched against the IMF, the World Bank and

the World Trade Organization, and their economic colonialism that drives so much
inequality and injustice. We marched for economic justice for debt cancellation and
for a just global system.


With my late husband Soren Ambrose, and hundreds of thousands of global justice
activists, we marched and participated in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil
and around the world, with one clear message as powerful today as it was then -
another world is possible!


| believe, now more than ever, that the rich and the powerful in our world fear the end
of capitalism — their power and privilege - more than they fear the end of our beautiful,
precious planet. They have known for decades that the fight against inequality and

the fight to stop climate breakdown are the same struggle. That stopping climate
breakdown means an end to the economic system that has served them so well for so
long. That is why they resist in every way they can. Why they continue to pollute our air,
poison our seas, and push us over the edge of planetary destruction.


| also believe, now more than ever, that we can, and we must, stop them. To do this we
must build peoples’ movements bigger than we have ever known. Climate warriors and
inequality fighters; rural farmers and feminists; trade unionists and youth activists must
join arms across the planet to scream ‘Enough! No More!’. We must build an unstoppable
force, coming together to fight and win a radically more equal world, where everyone
can live in dignity, and our planet is restored and renewed for all future generations.
There is no greater task, no greater responsibility at hand for our times.

A Luta Continua!


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


CLIMATE BREAKDOWN AND EXTREME INEQUALITY:
THE TWIN CHALLENGES OF OUR AGE


The crises of climate breakdown and extreme inequality dominate our age. Headlines
are filled with billionaire hubris and burning heatwaves. Our planet risks being
destroyed under a sea of flood and fire. Ordinary people the world over - in nations
rich and poor — face ever-higher prices for food and shelter, while the richest see their
fortunes grow relentlessly. Women, people of color, Indigenous Peoples and other
marginalized groups are on the sharp end of climate breakdown. Young people and
future generations will face the worst consequences of any failure to tackle climate
change, while male, white billionaires are the big winners.


Figure ES.1 The vicious cycle of climate breakdown and inequality.


These are not separate crises. They are not separate challenges facing humanity.
Presenting new research, this report shows that these twin crises of climate and
inequality are instead interlaced, fused together and driving one another.


Drawing on new global data and experts and advocates the world over, this report
argues for aradical new approach if we are to stand any chance at overcoming the
catastrophe unfolding before us. It argues for a planet for the 99%, in which we
address extreme inequality and climate breakdown together.


This means addressing not just the historic and current responsibilities of high-
emitting nations and major corporations for their role in driving carbon emissions,
but also - critically —- the disproportionate role that the richest individuals play in the
climate crisis through their emissions, investments and capture of politics. It means
a recognition that a radical increase in equality is a precondition to ending climate
breakdown and poverty.


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%66 SHL YO4d LANW1d V ‘ALITWNOS ALVWIT9


BOX ES.1. CLIMATE INEQUALITY IN NUMBERS
Oxfam's analysis has revealed the following.’


> |n2019, the super-rich 1% were responsible for 16% of global carbon
emissions, which is the same as the emissions of the poorest 66% of
humanity (5 billion people).


Pm Since the 1990s, the super-rich 1% burned through twice as much of the
carbon budget as the poorest half of humanity combined.


> The emissions of the 1% are set to be over 22 times more than the safe
limit (the emissions allowed if we are to stay below 1.5°C global warming)
in 2030.


> Annual global emissions by the super-rich 1% cancel out carbon savings
for almost a million onshore wind turbines.


> The emissions of the super-rich 1% in 2019 are enough to cause 1.3
million deaths due to heat.®


> Atax of 60% on the incomes of the super-rich 1% of earners globally

would cut the carbon equivalent of more than the total emissions of the
UK and raise USS6.4 trillion to fund renewable energy and a transition
away from fossil fuels.


In 2019, the richest 1%
were responsible for 16%
of global carbon emissions,
the same as the emissions
of the poorest 66% of
humanity
(5 billion people).


>P We are in an increasingly unequal world. We need to treat
this with as much priority as the climate issue, because
otherwise we may end up with a planet with a planet [where
we fix the] climate and people continue to die of hunger in
several countries in the world - President Luis ‘Lula’ Ignacio
da Silva. 44°


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>P The billionaire owners of our world, who inherited
resources that were stolen from us, are now also responsible
for the situation in which we find ourselves. A situation that
the countries of the Global South never sought. They
appropriated resources, they built empires of greed, it was
gold, it was silver, it was rubber and wood; now, it is oil and
gas - Pavel Martiarena Huaman, climate activist and
photographer, Peru. 44‘


Fundamentally, it means ambitious goals that, through dynamic, ambitious
government action, put the 99% in the driving seat of our economies to secure three
things.


1. A radical increase in equality. Governments must implement proven policies to
dramatically drive down the gap between the richest and the rest. Only by radically
reducing inequality can we deliver a good life for all of humanity while protecting
and preserving our planet. Reducing the incomes and wealth of the richest will
reduce emissions. More equal societies are better able to manage the huge risks
and impacts of extreme weather effectively and fairly. More economically equal
societies are vital to confronting inequalities such as gender, race and caste. They
can secure the political consensus needed for a rapid and permanent transition
away from fossil fuels and overconsumption by the few to a better life for all.


2. A fast and just transition away from fossil fuels. We must have a rapid and just
transition away from fossil fuels, eliminating their use in rich nations furthest
and fastest. We must implement a new wave of taxes on the corporations and
billionaires who have profited from plundering our world. trillions of dollars from
these new taxes can be invested in public services, technologies and goods
that are designed for and by the 99%, focused particularly on women and girls,
racialized people and other groups who are most impacted. These actions will
rapidly build a fairer, greener world, including the provision of universal and
accessible renewable energy, energy-efficient safe housing, high-speed rail and
other public transport, protection for all against extreme weather, and support for
losses and damages already incurred.


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5. Anew purpose for a new age. [he current economic system, geared towards
amassing ever-greater wealth for the already rich, is driving us over the precipice.
It is aracist, sexist economic system, built on exploitation of people and natural
resources. The focus on economic growth of any kind and endless extraction
and overconsumption at any cost must end. People should be put back in charge
of their destiny, and democratically elected governments, not corporates,
should shape our economy. Our economies should be purposively redesigned
and reimagined with a primary focus on the twin goals of human and planetary
flourishing.


THE SUPER-RICH ARE BURNING OUR WORLD


Unless we rapidly reduce carbon emissions, we will exhaust the amount of carbon
we can emit without triggering climate breakdown within just five years. The latest
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC) report has clearly shown that
rich, high-emitting countries and large polluting corporations bear an outsized
responsibility for the growing climate crisis.°


Global North countries’ role in, and responsibility for, the climate crisis is well
documented: countries classified by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) as Annex 1 nations (i.e. most industrialized countries) have been found,
because of their historical and often colonial past, to be responsible for 90% of excess
emissions, and Global North countries specifically for 92%.°


The role of corporations, and in particular fossil fuel corporations, in driving the climate
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