Recent analysis by Oxfam has revealed that in just over ten days into 2026, the world's richest 1 per cent of people have already exhausted their annual carbon budget. Starkingly, it also found that 0.1 per cent of the richest have exhausted their carbon emission limit by January 3, 2026.
The annual carbon budget refers to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can be emitted while staying within 1.5 degrees Celsius of global rise in temperature.
The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, adopted by 195 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015, emphasises on taking efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and hold the rise in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Notably, the analysis found that on average, each billionaire carries an investment portfolio in companies that produce 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 in a year. It added that to stay within the 1.5 degrees limit, the richest 1 per cent should likely slash their emissions by 97 per cent by 2030.
It also highlighted that decades of over emissions by the world’s ultra-rich are causing economic damage to low and lower-middle-income countries, which could add up to 44 trillion dollars by 2050.
The analysis also stated that the carbon emissions by the richest 1 per cent in an entire year will cause an estimated 1.3 million heat-related deaths by the end of this century.
Often, vulnerable communities in poorer nations are the worst affected due to the climate crisis. But they have no to minor role in carbon emissions. An Oxfam report titled "Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster" found that a person from the richest 0.1 per cent class produces more carbon pollution in a day than the 50 per cent of the poorest class emit all year.
Now, Oxfam presses governments to slash the emissions of the super-rich. It has called for raising taxes on the income of the super-rich and engaging in negotiations at the UN Convention of International Tax Cooperation to deliver a fairer global architecture. It also stressed levying excess profit taxes on fossil fuel corporations.
Oxfam also pushes for a ban or punitive taxation of carbon-intensive luxury items, including super-yachts and private jets. It also calls nations transform to a sustainable and equitable economies and reject dominant neoliberal economics.