No, the richest 1% do not emit as much CO2 as two thirds of humanity
DECRYPTION – This statement contained in an Oxfam report is misleading: it does not only take into account the lifestyle of the richest, but also and above all the emissions of the companies in which they hold shares.
With 36.8 gigatons of CO2 (36,800,000,000,000,000 grams of carbon dioxide, you sometimes have to write the numbers in full to see the orders of magnitude!) emitted worldwide in 2022, humanity has crossed the last year a new record for carbon emissions. This is 321 million tonnes more than in 2021, notes the International Energy Agency (IEA). This state of affairs alarms the scientific community as a whole more and more every day, and the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C (compared to pre-industrial temperature levels) seems increasingly difficult to achieve.
Understanding these emissions and sharing responsibility divides governments, experts and activists, and sometimes offers misleading interpretations. This is the case of the report published by Oxfam this Monday, November 20, and whose key lesson is summed up in this shocking sentence, the main conclusion of the work carried out by the NGO from…
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