After a month, a rich man contaminates a person’s entire life.

Washington and New York. A billionaire in Mexico generates more climate pollution in nine hours than an average Mexican does in a year; Likewise, in one month, that same rich person generates more carbon emissions than the average person in a lifetime, according to calculations in a new Oxfam report.

The analysis is not limited to those who have fortunes of more than a billion dollars in a single country. Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires emit, on average, more carbon through their investments, private planes and yachts in just over 90 minutes than the average person does in their entire life.explains Oxfam. The report Carbon emissions inequality kills argues that pollutants generated by private planes, luxury yachts and investments in polluting industries fuel inequality, hunger and death on the planet.

A particular problem is private planes. Jeff Bezos’ two jets spent nearly 25 days in the air over a 12-month period and emitted the same volume of carbon that an average Amazon worker (Bezos’ company) in the United States would generate in 207 years.Oxfam calculated. Carlos Slim made 92 trips on his private plane, the equivalent of going around the world five times.

Data Oxfam shared with The Day detail that a billionaire in Mexico generates more carbon emissions (through his investments, superyachts and airplanes) in just 15 seconds than a low-income person in a year.

The richest treat the planet as if it were their patio; They mistreat him for their pleasure and benefit. Their polluting investments and luxury toys are not only a symbol of excess, but also a direct threat to the planet and its population.said Oxfam International executive director Amitabh Behar. He added that “the extreme emissions of the richest – a consequence of their luxury lifestyle and, above all, their polluting investments – put lives at risk. “Its dangerous levels of pollution and excessive greed exacerbate the crisis that threatens our collective future, which is not only unfair, but also lethal.”

Oxfam’s report breaks down the emissions generated by billionaires and the richest 1 percent of the world’s population since 1990 at national and regional levels. Oxfam researchers calculate the degree of global warming that can be attributed to the emissions of the rich and thereby quantify the damage that this warming causes, both economically and in excess of deaths.

Emissions by the world’s wealthiest 1 percent have caused a $2.9 trillion drop in global economic output and caused crop failures that could have fed 14.5 million people a year between 1990 and 2023, they estimate. The report states that If the richest 1 percent had halved their emissions between 2015 and 2019, some 756 thousand lives could have been saved.

According to the calculations of Forbes, The wealth of the 2,781 people with fortunes exceeding one billion dollars in the world increased to a total of 14.2 trillion dollars.

Oxfam noted that if this total were invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, by 2030 this wealth could cover the financing gap between what governments have promised and what is required to keep the increase in average global temperature below of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It is clear, however, that billionaires will not choose to make such radical changes to their investments or lobby for urgent, progressive climate action.writes Oxfam in its report.

For the organization, the obvious alternatives: a wealth tax on the richest 1 percent and regulating the activities of companies and investors in order to drastically reduce their carbon emissions in a fair way.

It is estimated that a tax on the wealth of millionaires and billionaires could raise at least $1.7 trillion annually, and an additional tax on investments in polluting activities could raise $100 billion more.

The most important thing is to reinvent economies, Oxfam concluded: The current economic system, aimed at fattening the fortunes of the already rich through extraction and consumption at any price, has been undermining a sustainable and equal future for all people for too long. Governments must commit to ensuring that the income of the richest 10 percent of the population does not exceed that of the poorest 40 percent.