Wealthiest 1% Have Used Up Their Share of World’s Carbon Budget in Just 10 Days, Analysis Finds

According to a new analysis by the nonprofit organization Oxfam Great Britain (Oxfam GB), the wealthiest 1% of people in the world have already exhausted their annual share of the global carbon budget.

One’s annual share of the carbon budget is the amount of carbon emissions per person that can be added into the atmosphere while remaining within the target for no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming compared to pre-industrial times. 

The richest 1%, which includes 77 million people such as billionaires and millionaires, surpassed their share of the carbon budget in just the first 10 days of 2025. By comparison, someone in the poorest 50% of the global population would use up just their share of the annual global carbon budget in 1,022 days.

“The future of our planet is hanging by a thread, yet the super-rich are being allowed to continue to squander humanity’s chances with their lavish lifestyles and polluting investments,” Chiara Liguori, senior climate justice policy advisor for Oxfam GB, said in a statement. “Governments need to stop pandering to the richest polluters and instead make them pay their fair share for the havoc they’re wreaking on our planet. Leaders who fail to act are culpable in a crisis that threatens the lives of billions.”

The carbon budget that Oxfam GB used in the analysis is based on the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which noted that maintaining under 1.5 degrees Celsius warming would allow for a median of about 24 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2030, at which time population is estimated to be around 8.5 billion. As Oxfam GB reported, this total divided by the 8.5 billion people gave the estimated carbon budget per person per year to be around 2.1 metric tons.

Not only are the ultra-wealthy using well beyond their share of the carbon budget, but the ways that they are emitting are not providing economic benefits to society. According to a separate report by Oxfam GB titled Carbon Inequality Kills, just 50 billionaires took 184 flights on private jets in one year, emitting the same amount of carbon an average person outside of the 1% would in 300 years. One year of private yacht use by this group of the world’s wealthiest individuals emitted the same amount of carbon an average person would in 860 years, the report found.

In total, the use of luxury private jets and super-yachts, alongside polluting investments, led the 50 richest billionaires to emit more carbon in 2.78 hours than it takes for an average person in Britain to emit in their entire lifetime.

Previous research from Oxfam GB found that in 2019, the wealthiest 1% were responsible for 15.9% of all carbon emissions, while the lower 50%, totalling 3.9 billion people, accounted for a total of 7.7% of global emissions that year. A separate study similarly found that the bottom 50% of earners has been responsible for only 16% of all global emissions since 1990, while the top 1% are responsible for 23% of all emissions in that timeframe.

Another study published in 2023 found that the wealthiest 10% of people in the U.S. made up 40% of the country’s total emissions.

In order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the wealthiest 1% of people globally need to reduce their emissions per capita by 97% by 2030. However, Oxfam GB found that the 1% is currently on track to reduce emissions by only 5%.

As The Guardian reported, the wealthiest 1% are surpassing their share of the global carbon budget, yet they have the resources to escape the worst impacts of climate change through amenities like air conditioning and climate-resilient housing. Meanwhile, people earning the lowest incomes globally hardly contribute to emissions while facing the worst of extreme heat, flooding, poor air quality, and other harmful and deadly effects of climate change.

“As global temperatures continue to climb, the UK must show how it will generate its own share of new, fair funding to meet the escalating climate finance needs and fight inequality — significantly higher taxes on polluting luxuries like private jets and superyachts is an obvious place for the Government to start,” Liguori said. 

According to Oxfam GB, if the UK taxed luxury vehicles such as private jets and yachts fairly, the country could have generated up to £2 billion ($2.44 billion) to put toward climate action.

At the latest COP29 United Nations Climate Conference, the wealthiest countries in the world further refused to pay a more equitable share toward climate resiliency, offering $250 billion to lower-income countries to split among themselves for climate action. Experts have noted that developing countries would require at least $1.3 trillion per year, if not $5 trillion or more, by 2030 for adequate climate adaptation and resiliency.