According to a “taz” data analysis, the richest people in Germany emit umpteen times as many climate-damaging greenhouse gases as the average. While the poorest emitted just over three tons of CO2 per year in 2019, the richest one percent emitted around 105 tons – almost 35 times as much, as the newspaper on Saturday citing data from the World Inequality Labs, a think tank led by economist Thomas Piketty reported.
If you divide the richest into even smaller groups, this inequality continues to increase: According to “taz”, the emissions of the richest 0.001 percent in Germany, around 800 people, are estimated at 11,700 tons a year – a thousand times the German average.
According to the newspaper, emissions in Germany fell by around 34 percent between 1991 and 2019, which was mainly due to the poorer two-thirds of the population. The richer third, on the other hand, saved below average.
Climate activists block private jet area in Eindhoven
Climate activists have also been denouncing the imbalance for a long time. On Saturday, several hundred climate protection demonstrators blocked the private jet area of the airport in the Dutch city of Eindhoven.
The development organization Oxfam had also denounced the rich around the world as climate polluters in November. The emissions that billionaires caused through their own consumption with private jets, super yachts and luxury villas amount to a thousand times the global per capita emissions. “If you also look at the emissions that are partly caused by their investments, their greenhouse gas emissions are many times higher.” But the responsibility of the super-rich for the climate crisis is hardly taken into account in politics.
