Vantage | Meet 12 billionaires who pollute more than 2 mn homes put together

The end of 2023 is near. How many of you have achieved what you set out to do? We don’t mean to hit a nerve. But if you haven’t, you may want to turn to climate change for inspiration. It has achieved milestones beyond imagination: Climate change is absolutely killing it. Unfortunately, quite literally. Climate records have tumbled this year. Sea temperatures are historically high. Antarctic sea ice is worryingly low. Every Continent is facing extreme weather events. Experts say 2023 is on track to be the hottest year on record. This is a global crisis, and it affects us all, but we aren’t equally to blame. So who gets the lion’s share of the blame? It’s simple. Those with the lion’s share of the money.

The Uber elite are the biggest contributors to climate change. That’s the richest 1% of humanity. The billionaires and millionaires. In numbers, that’s 77 million people. They accounted for 16% of all carbon emissions in 2019. That’s more than the carbon emissions of the poorest 66% or five billion people in 2019. More than the amount generated by all road transport globally in 2019. Enough to cancel out the work of nearly one million wind turbines each year. And enough to cause more than a million deaths due to heat. This sounds bad, but it gets worse when we look at the richest among the rich. The top 12 wealthiest people in the world produce more greenhouse gas emissions than the annual energy emissions of two million homes. That’s 12 people against two million homes. This is not an exercise in public shaming, but purely for clarity, here are the names: Carlos Slim, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Bernard Arnault, Michael Dell, Roman Abramovich, Larry Ellison, Elon Musk, Eric Schmidt, and Laurene Powell. These 12 names have a wealth of superyachts, private jets, cars, helicopters, palatial mansions, you name it. Together, that results in 17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. And while Jeff Bezos simply flexes his biceps and wears cowboy hats. Bill Gates writes a book on climate change but matters don’t change. At this point, climate change seems to be a champagne problem. So much so that the image of contributions to climate change resembles a champagne coupe. The top is wide, flat and shallow, that’s the richest 10%. On average, they account for 50% of all emissions. Then comes the narrowing joint of the glass that’s the middle 40% of humanity; their carbon contribution is roughly proportionate to their number. Further down is the long, slim stem, that’s the remaining 50% of the world population. Their carbon use tapers along with their incomes. That’s the bottom hundreds of millions. They contribute the least to climate change but suffer the most. This is the greatest irony of the carbon inequality. Like most things in life, climate change too has a class divide. It would take about 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99% to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires do in a year. This is unfair and unacceptable. So what is the solution? Taxing the rich. Climate experts have repeatedly called for hefty wealth taxes on the super-rich. This can reduce inequality, and fund transition to renewable energy. According to Oxfam, a 60% tax on incomes of the wealthiest 1% can cut emissions by 695 million tonnes. That’s more than the carbon footprint of the UK in 2019. This tax can raise over six trillion dollars a year. It can help fund the battle against climate change, because money isn’t just making the world go round, it is destroying our planet. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.