The NGO Oxfam has announced in just over a year that the richest 1% in the world has already exceeded the annual share of greenhouse gas emissions. This percentage is, in absolute terms, a set of 77 million people – 8 billion inhabitants in the world. Contestants have only needed ten days to exceed their share in the Christmas draw. The day that this limit is exceeded is called Pollutocrat Day or Pollution Day each year by Oxfam.

Social inequality is great. The richest worlds not only accumulate wealth, but pollute much more. Here's the data: The 77 million richest inhabitants pollute twice as much as the 3.9 billion poorest citizens. The latter group represents almost half of the world ' s population, 48 per cent of the total. Thus, by equating 1% of the world ' s richest population with the poorest 48%, this small group of rich pollutes twice that of the poor.

In particular, 1% of the richest in the world emits 76 tonnes of CO2 per year, which accounts for 16% of global emissions – data from 2019- and 3,900 people, representing 48% of the world’s population, account for 7.7% of total emissions.

Richer and richer, more pollution

As long as the richest in the world take only ten days to exceed the annual emissions quota, anyone below half the scale of wealth would take almost three years – 1,022 days – to exceed the quota.

As expected, they are not homogeneous groups or the richest, as they are not in vain 77.000 million people. Elon Musk is the richest in the world and, as ARGIA journalist Jenofa Berhokoirigoin points out, a normal citizen would need 834 years to pollute a single year in Musk. A poor one would need 5,437 years.

The accumulation of wealth, accumulating

Oxfam is demonstrating year after year how the inequality of capitalism is accelerating.

In 2014, we at ARGIA reported that the 85 richest people had the same number as 3.6 billion people in the world. In 2016, it was 62. By 2017, it was 43. In 2019, there were 26 citizens of the world who were half of age. Then came the pandemic, ten of the richest people doubled their fortune and in 2022 it was highlighted that ten of the richest people had six times more than 3.6 billion poor people. The 2023 report highlights that in two years, from December 2019 to December 2021, two-thirds of the wealth generated in the world – 63% – has been left to the richest, 1%.

The Multilateralism in an Era of Global Oligarchy (Multilateralism in an Era of World Oligarchy) report, published in September 2024, also stressed that the concentration of power and wealth increases, which feeds inequalities within the country and between countries. As an example, Hegoalde has 79% of the world's population, compared to 31% of the wealth.