The world’s richest 1% have already used up their fair share of the global carbon budget for 2025, just 10 days into the year.
In less than a week and a half, the consumption habits of an individual from this monied elite had already caused, on average, 2.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to analysis by Oxfam GB. It would take someone from the poorest 50% of humanity three years to create the same amount of pollution.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is created whenever carbon-based fuels such as coal, gas and oil – used for most electricity generation, industrial processes, heating and transport – are burned.
When it accumulates in the atmosphere it has an insulating effect, preventing heat reaching the Earth from the sun from being radiated back into space. The result of the increasing concentration of atmospheric CO2 has been a breakdown of climatic conditions that have been stable for 10,000 years.
Governments have pledged to limit global heating to 1.5C (2.7F) above preindustrial levels, but the world is far from hitting the targets needed to keep to this level.
On Friday, figures from the EU’s Copernicus climate change service showed that 2024 was the first year to exceed the 1.5C figure.