If Billionaires continue with their current rate of carbon emissions, expect more tsunamis, floods, and wildfires by 2030

The trend favors the rich increasing their carbon emissions by 2030, due to the rise of the carbon contents of their investments in fossil fuel companies.

Credit, Vox

In 1990, the emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas and driver of climate change, rose to 22.4 billion metric tonnes globally, with the rich one percent of the global population responsible for 13 percent of the total, while the bottom 50 percent took responsibility for 16 percent of the emissions.

In 2013, the global carbon dioxide emissions rose 60 percent to 35.8 billion metric tonnes, with the top one percent of the population accounting for 15 percent of the total, while the bottom 50 percent accounting for smaller parts of the carbon emissions.

In 2021, a six percent increase from 2020 pushed carbon emissions to 36.3 billion metric tonnes, with the increase in total emissions of the rich one percent three times more than that of the poorest 50 percent of the global population, while the emissions from the low- and middle-income groups within rich countries declined.

From the above, the rich one percent accounts for a successive growing portion of carbon dioxide emissions, at a disproportionate amount of carbon emissions compared to low- and middle-income groups within rich countries, as well as the low-income groups within poor nations. And with the rich one percent set to account for 16 percent of total global emissions by 2030, up from 13 percent in 1990 and 15 percent in 2013, the glaring picture of global inequality becomes more painful, especially with the contribution of the rich one percent towards added emissions to the atmosphere coming more than all the citizens of the European Union and more than twice that of the poorest half of humanity.

Credit, MarketWatch

The trend favors the rich increasing their carbon emissions by 2030, due to the rise of the carbon contents of their investments in fossil fuel companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell, BHP, and others, which released more emissions in the last 28 years than in the 237 years prior to 1988. To substantiate the increase, BP projects global energy demand to likely grow by 36 percent by 2030, at about 1.6 percent annually, with the global energy arriving from fossil fuels, though growth will come almost entirely in non-OECD countries.

 The aviation sector’s climate impact expands very fast, with the top one percent causing 50 percent of global aviation emissions, through hopping over super short distances on private jets, which are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial jets and 50 times more polluting than trains. To confirm possible further increases in emissions, the global private jet market is projected to undergo a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1 percent over 2022 to 2030, the market expanding from $28.33 billion in 2021 to $40.67 billion by 2030.

Credit, Superyacht 2030

Private yachts owned by the top one percent provide for lots of carbon emissions, but a study values the global yacht market to expand at a CAGR of 5.4 percent from 2022 to 2030, rising from a market size of $8.50 billion in 2021. Needless to say, a super yacht with a permanent crew emits about 7,020 tons of CO2 a year, making it a dangerous asset from the environmental angle.

With the rise in the usage of dangerous assets such as the super yacht by 2030, increases can be expected in the carbon footprints of the top one percent of the population. It becomes certain through the use of private jets, with a market expected to expand by 4.1 percent by 2030. Add the issue of fossil fuel companies to it, expected to thrive through the rising global energy demand by 2030, and it becomes obvious the top one percent could play a major role towards the harsh impacts of carbon emissions to be expected in eight years’ time.

Credit, Wildfires Today

Extreme fires could increase up to 14 percent by 2030, 30 percent by the end of 2050, and 50 percent by the end of the century, fuelled by the current rate of carbon dioxide emissions, which experienced a growth from 22.4 billion metric tonnes in 1990 to 33.8 billion metric tonnes in 2013 and then 36.3 billion metric tonnes in 2020, according to a publication by the United Nations Environment Programme earlier this year.

The deforestation of the Amazon Rain Forest reaches a new record during the first half of 2022, since more than 3,980 square kilometers, an area five times the size of New York City, got affected. Fifty-five percent of the Amazon Rain Forest may be lost by 2030, meaning the planet’s health could suffer irreparable damage over the destruction to the vast rain forest that plays a critical role in protecting planet earth.

In the past one hundred years, 58 tsunamis claimed more than 260,000 lives, or an average of 4,600 persons per disaster, with the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 causing an estimated 250,000 fatalities across 14 countries, exposing millions to flooding. By 2030, an estimated 50 percent of the world’s population will live in the coastal areas, exposed to flooding, storms, and tsunamis.

If the activities of the top one percent rich continue, this could help create a potential danger to the estimated 50 percent of the world’s population who will live in the coastal areas by 2030, exposed to tsunamis and flooding. The loss of large areas of the Amazon Rain Forest becomes inevitable. It also becomes inevitable that we have projected water-related disasters such as floods and tsunamis, which caused over 5,000 fatalities globally from 2001 to 2018, accounting for 73.9 percent of all natural disasters.

To save the situation, the one percent would need to cut down its carbon emissions by around 97 percent of today’s numbers. They would need to join the bottom fifty percent and others in emitting an average of just 2.3 tons of CO2 per year by 2030, roughly half the average footprint of every person on earth today. Until the top one percent rich join in cutting by half the average footprints of every person on earth today, the year 2030 could present unimaginable challenges to man as specie.

Further Reading

Credit, Green Matters

Cut global emissions by 7.6 percent every year for next decade to meet 1.5°C Paris target - UN report. Read More.

World's richest 1% cause double CO2 emissions of poorest 50%, says Oxfam. Read Here.

The evidence is clear: the time for action is now. We can halve emissions by 2030. Read Here.

Number of wildfires forecast to rise by 14% by 2030. Read Here.

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