‘Carbon Inequality Kills’, Says New Oxfam Report

Date: 04/11/24

Here at Think Hire, we’re often asked what difference the actions of a single individual or company can really make to the environment and the fight against climate change. Our response is that every little helps. If every company switched to renewable energy sources, like the Solartainer Versatile, the cumulative impact would make a significant positive difference.

Unfortunately, as an Oxfam report released this week shows, the actions of some individuals can also have a dramatically negative effect on climate change.

What is carbon inequality?

The facts and figures in the new Oxfam report: ‘Carbon Inequality Kills: Why curbing the excessive emissions of an elite few can create a sustainable planet for all’ are quite breath-taking. For example, the study estimates that half of the world’s carbon emissions come from the richest 10% of people. What’s more, the top 1% are responsible for 16% of all carbon emissions – that’s more than the poorest 66% of the world’s population combined.

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are used as examples in the report, which calculates that they emit more carbon in 90minutes that the average human does in their entire life.

Private jets and luxury yachts are singled out as major contributors to climate change. The private jets used by billionaires generate as much carbon per year as the average person would create in 300 years. Luxury yachts create three times as much. The three luxury yachts run by the Walton family, owners of Walmart, emit the same amount of carbon per year as 1,700 typical Walmart workers.

Blowing the carbon budget

The carbon budget is defined as the amount of carbon we can safely emit before the temperature starts to rise beyond the 1.5°C level. Under current circumstances, it’s estimated that this budget will last around four years.

However, if we all started to produce the same emissions as the top 1%, the carbon budget would be gone in just five months. If we all matched the emissions of the private jets and luxury yachts of the world’s billionaires, we’d blow that carbon budget in just two days.

Mind-boggling though these numbers are, the report overview emphasises that the situation is about more than just statistics. ‘The emissions of the world’s super-rich 1% are causing economic losses of trillions of dollars; contributing to huge crop losses; and leading to millions of excess deaths,’ it says, describing these people bluntly as ‘pollutocrats’.

No wonder Musk and Bezos are so invested in finding ways to leave our ailing planet behind and colonise space.

We all have a part to play

Your company may not have a private jet or a luxury yacht, but your operations still create carbon emissions, and Think Hire can help you to reduce these to almost zero. By tapping the renewable energy source of the sun, our solar powered generators can provide power for tools, smartphones, vehicles and plant. We can also show you how to power site lighting from a renewable energy source, without the need for site generator hire.

Not only will these clean energy solutions significantly cut your carbon emissions, they’ll also significantly cut your running costs too, by over 50% in most cases, creating a win / win scenario for your business and for the planet.

We understand how fighting climate change can feel futile in the face of the massive emissions of United States and China, or indeed billionaires. But that shouldn’t stop us from doing all we can to reduce our own contribution to climate change – especially when cutting carbon can also cut your costs.

To find out more about tapping into renewable energy sources with Think Hire, to make your site cleaner, greener and both energy- and cost-efficient, get in touch with our expert team today. 

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