The richest 0.1% wreck the planet - it’s time they pay up

Amitabh Behar is the Executive Director of Oxfam International, and Wawa Gatheru is a Kenyan American climate activist and founder of Black Girl Environmentalist

We come from two different hemispheres and generations: raised in Connecticut as the daughter of Kenyan immigrants, I was taught to recycle to save the planet while corporations polluted freely. Amitabh has spent decades working alongside communities in India where the poorest pay the price for choices made by the powerful. But we share one worldview from our lived experiences: the climate crisis is rooted in a crisis of inequality – and of power.

The international COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil - which comes a decade after the Paris Agreement - is an inflection point for the world. This moment is both an opportunity for governments to take groundbreaking action to deliver on their climate targets and reinvigorate multilateral cooperation, and yet another stark reminder of how the super-rich and their political influence continue to derail meaningful progress.

On paper, COP30 is a moment where global leaders could finally deliver on the promises they’ve made: to finance a just energy transition, reduce emissions, and restore faith in international cooperation. Instead, the UN has now declared the 1.5C target to prevent the worst climate catastrophes completely out of reach.

Wealthy nations and big historical polluters like the US and the EU have failed to meet their pledges: less than a third of climate finance by rich countries has been delivered

The latest country climate plans submitted last week would only reduce emissions by 10% by 2035, far short of the 60% needed to avoid total climate breakdown.

The result of so many years of inaction is devastating: communities in climate-vulnerable countries, particularly in the Global South, are facing the brunt of escalating fossil fuelled disasters. In Asia, around 1.2 billion people have been impacted by climate disasters in the last decade. Droughts, wildfires, hurricanes and floods are jeopardising the lives and livelihoods of people all around the world – with Indigenous groups, women and girls disproportionately impacted.

In fact, the only people benefiting from this lack of political spine are the super-rich – the same income group that are the most responsible for the current climate crisis. The latest Oxfam report shows that the richest 0.1% produce more carbon emissions in a day than someone in the poorest 50% of humanity emits all year. While the emissions share of the poorest 50% has actually fallen since 1990, that of the 0.1% has risen a staggering 32%.

These are not just numbers – they are stories of power. Governments should be treating these emissions as what they are – deadly. The super-rich’s emissions directly contribute to the number of heat-related deaths, and climate disaster fatalities. But instead of accountability, the wealthy are rewarded with access and influence. Last year’s COP hosted 1,773 fossil-fuel lobbyists – more than the delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined.

It’s clear who is really in charge behind the scenes, and it’s not the people we elected. Rich governments are bending to the economic and political influence of the richest, allowing private profiteering to dominate the terms of debate.

Two thirds of climate finance for the Global South is now in the form of loans, as private investors slowly take over the development and climate funding space – leaving many poorer countries spending more on debt repayments than on life-saving climate mitigation and adaptation.

But here’s what gives us hope: there is a clear, fair, and popular path forward. Make rich polluters pay.

Taxing the super-rich isn’t radical; it’s common sense. It’s about justice and accountability: the extreme inequality between Global North and Global South is rooted in colonialism and the historical responsibility of the richest for the current climate crisis, and sustained by modern-day exploitation. Companies like Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, earn around 321 times more per electric vehicle sold than the Democratic Republic of the Congo earns for supplying the 3kg of cobalt in their car.

People everywhere already understand this. A Greenpeace and Oxfam poll from earlier this year found that 8 in 10 people around the world would support taxing the super-rich and oil, gas and coal corporations to cover the costs of climate disasters. Another poll by Covering Climate Now found that 89% of the world support greater government climate action.

Taxing the super-rich is about safeguarding our environmental futures and those of future generations: A 60% tax on the richest 1% would slash emissions equivalent to the total emissions of the UK and generate over $6.4 trillion. These cuts are lifesaving.

Lastly, taxing the super-rich and cutting out their influence in spaces like COP30 unlocks space for meaningful climate negotiations and a new way of doing politics.

Around the world, local communities and regional governments have been showing how the renewable energy transition and decision-making can be feminist, decolonial and democratic. Yet the people who have the most to contribute are historically excluded from climate negotiations. The space left by fossil fuel lobbyists should be occupied by those most impacted by the climate crisis.

When the world came together to sign the Paris Agreement, governments proved that ambition is possible when humanity’s future is at stake. Now it’s up to policymakers to choose to find that backbone again and decide what story we will be telling future generations about what happened in Belem, at the gateway of the Amazon.