Consumption and investment: How the super-rich pollute the climate

Consumption and investments How the super-rich impact the climate As of: October 27, 2026 • 11:42 a.m

The super-rich are fueling the climate crisis with private jets, consumption and investments. At the same time, poorer people suffer more from its consequences. How can climate protection be made socially just?

Two seconds: That's how long it takes for private jets worldwide to emit more CO2 than a person from the poorer half of the world's population produces in a whole year. This is the result of a current calculation by Oxfam. In its report, the development organization examines to what extent the super-rich are fueling the climate crisis with their lifestyle and investments.

The numbers show great inequality: While some people travel on private jets and consume a lot, others lack the money to adequately protect themselves from heat, floods or rising energy costs. So are the rich to blame for climate change? “The rich are not solely to blame for the climate crisis, but they bear an enormous responsibility,” says Claudia Kemfert, energy economist at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), in an interview with the ARD financial editorial team.

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According to Kemfert, the richest ten percent of people worldwide cause almost half of the CO2 emissions. The richest percent accounted for around 17 percent of emissions, while the poorer half of the population only accounted for eight percent.

How big the differences are in personal lifestyle is particularly evident when flying. “You can see very clearly that anyone who flies a lot and far also causes a lot more CO2 emissions,” says Kemfert. Private jets are a big topic. “Nothing symbolizes the climate-damaging lifestyle of the extremely rich more impressively than that,” reports Leonie Petersen, consultant for social-ecological transformation at Oxfam, to the ARD financial editorial team.

According to the Oxfam report, private jets produced a total of 16 million tons of carbon dioxide worldwide in 2025. Over 55,000 private jets took off from German airports last year, which together emitted more than 182,000 tons of CO2. In addition, the super-rich would have larger apartments and more consumption. But their climate footprint doesn’t end there.

The investments of the super-rich also play an important role. Oxfam examined the holdings of 1,000 billionaires in a total of 1,095 companies. According to the report, around 71 percent of their investments in 2025 went into particularly climate-damaging sectors such as oil, gas and chemicals. The emissions attributed to the investments amounted to a total of 486 million tons of so-called CO2 equivalents. This is a unit of measurement that makes the climate impact of various greenhouse gases comparable to that of CO2.

The emissions are allocated proportionately to the investors. For the 49 Germans among these billionaires, investment emissions were on average around 705,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents, well above the international average.

“So it’s not just about how people live, but also about where their money goes,” says Kemfert. That has a lot to do with income and assets. According to Oxfam, the differences are also large in Germany: a person from the richest 0.1 percent of the population causes 52 times as many CO2 emissions as a person from the poorer half.

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The inequality is also reflected in the consequences of global warming. People with high incomes are often better able to protect themselves from extreme weather. "For example, richer people are more likely to live in areas that are less vulnerable to climate-related disasters such as droughts or floods," said Oxfam's Petersen.

Poorer people, on the other hand, more often lived in poorly insulated buildings, could not easily afford energy-saving renovations and had fewer financial reserves after a disaster. “That means they are more severely affected by the consequences of the climate crisis,” says Petersen.

According to Oxfam, flood deaths are seven times higher in more unequal countries than in less unequal countries. The organization argues that social inequality exacerbates climate disasters because it determines who is most at risk and who can recover from damage.

Kemfert also sees this as a central problem. “Those who cause a particularly large number of emissions are usually best able to protect themselves from the consequences of the climate crisis.” People with lower incomes, on the other hand, are often particularly vulnerable.

Climate change is thus increasing existing social differences. If you have little, you can lose a large part of your livelihood in a catastrophe. Wealthier people are more likely to be able to compensate for damages and protect their assets.

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So what to do? Oxfam is calling for higher taxes on high wealth and private jets. The income is intended to help transform the economy in a climate-friendly manner and deal with the consequences of the climate crisis. “Anyone who fuels the climate crisis so much must also pay to deal with it instead of passing the costs on to the general public,” says Oxfam speaker Manuel Schmitt.

The organization also calls for economically disadvantaged countries and poorer sections of the population to be adequately supported in dealing with the climate crisis. DIW expert Kemfert takes a similar view: "People who have a lower or middle income must be specifically relieved through socially staggered climate money."

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Kemfert is also committed to reducing climate-damaging subsidies. "Company car privileges as an example or the fuel discount. We should not keep fossil fuels artificially cheap or permanently subsidize them." A discounted Germany ticket or social leasing programs - the discounted leasing of electric cars - are also options. “It is important that climate protection is worthwhile and, above all, affordable and socially fair for everyone,” said Kemfert.

The question is not just who causes how much CO2. It's also about how emissions can be effectively reduced - and how the costs of climate protection can be distributed so that people with little money are not unduly burdened.

This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | How the super-rich are polluting the climate | Oct 27, 2026 | 10:18 a.m