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Ultra-rich 0.1% produce more carbon pollution than nearly half of humanity while cashing in on the climate disasters they create

  • Person in the richest 0.1 percent has contributed nearly 400 times more to extreme heatwaves than someone in the poorest half of humanity.
  • Oxfam’s research shows that while the super-rich are responsible for a disproportionate share of carbon pollution, it is ordinary people who bear the brunt of the resulting floods, fires and famine.
  • Oxfam’s new “Destroy & Rebuild Index” exposes how super-rich investors backing fossil fuels and other high-polluting industries are also profiting from disaster preparedness and clean-up.
  • Oxfam urges governments to make rich polluters pay and end climate profiteering.

The world’s richest 0.1 percent (8 million people) produces more carbon pollution than the world’s poorest 3.5 billion people combined, reveals new Oxfam analysis. Published ahead of the UN climate summit (COP31) in Türkiye, the report exposes how the world’s super-rich are driving climate breakdown through their outsized emissions, while shielding themselves from the consequences and, increasingly, profiting from the destruction.

A person in the richest 0.1 percent has contributed nearly 400 times more to today’s extreme heatwaves than someone in the poorest 50 percent. Collectively, this small group of people produces over three times more carbon pollution than the entire population of Sub-Saharan Africa (1.3 billion people).

“The climate crisis is often described as a shared human challenge. It is not. Those who have done the least to cause it are losing their homes, their harvests and, increasingly, their lives. Meanwhile, the super-rich can buy their way out of danger – by retreating to high-tech underground survival bunkers, hiring private firefighting crews, and securing private insurance – and are actively profiting from the consequences of their pollution. This is not a tragedy of shared fate; it is a crime of extreme inequality,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

Combining carbon inequality data with cutting-edge climate attribution models, Oxfam has found that:

  • The richest 1 percent are responsible for 20 percent of global warming since 1990 – 100 times more, per person, than someone in the poorest half of humanity.
  • Just one year of emissions by the richest 1 percent will cause 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths. 78 percent of these deaths will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries, despite these countries being responsible for 8 percent of global emissions.
  • The emissions of the richest 1 percent will cause nearly $53 trillion in damage by 2050.

Used exclusively by the super-rich, private aviation remains one of the clearest examples of extreme carbon inequality. New analysis by Oxfam of private jet tracking data finds that:

  • Combined, private jets emit more carbon pollution in two seconds than someone in the poorest half of humanity emits in a year.

While the super-rich are responsible for a disproportionate share of carbon pollution, it is ordinary people who bear the brunt of the resulting floods, fires and famine.

“Eight million people produce more carbon pollution than three and a half billion. In places like Tonga and Solomon Islands, families who did the least to cause this crisis are paying for it first, rebuilding after floods and droughts they had no hand in causing. That isn’t bad luck. It follows from who decides where emissions get cut and who pays. At COP31, New Zealand has a seat in that room. It should use it to back taxes on extreme wealth and fossil fuel profits, and push for climate finance that comes as grants, not more debt.” said Oxfam Aotearoa Executive Director Jason Myers.

The super-rich buy safety through private insurance and homes in safer, cooler places. For everyone else, climate disasters mean destroyed homes and crops, depleted savings, and lost livelihoods. This leaves people even more exposed when the next disaster hits, deepening the inequality that made them far more vulnerable to climate disasters in the first place. By 2050, as many as 1 billion people (around 10 percent of the world’s population) could be displaced by the climate crisis. Most of those displaced will be in the Global South.

Oxfam’s new Destroy & Rebuild Index identifies 217 corporations profiting from industries that fuel climate breakdown as well as disaster preparedness, recovery and reconstruction.

BlackRock and Vanguard are invested in 92 percent of the corporations in the index. Their combined investments total more than $1 trillion.

The report also warns that climate disasters are increasingly exploited to push policies that deepen inequality, including the privatization of climate action and public services, land grabs, deregulation and tax breaks benefiting the super-rich. The result is a vicious cycle of injustice: deaths from flooding are seven times higher in more unequal countries.

“The ultra-rich are setting the planet on fire and then charging the rest of us for the extinguishers,” said Behar. “They profit from the pollution. They profit from the disaster. And they profit again from the clean-up.” said Behar.

Oxfam is calling on governments meeting at COP31 to:

  • Make rich polluters pay to significantly and rapidly curb their carbon emissions, including through permanent wealth and income taxes, a permanent tax on fossil fuel corporations, and punitive taxes on high-emitting luxury items like private jets.
  • Substantially increase climate finance for the Global South, prioritizing public, grant-based finance rather than loans that deepen debt. The amount for adaptation should be tripled by 2035.
  • Radically reduce inequality within and between countries, including through climate-resilient public infrastructure and public services.
  • End profiteering from climate disasters. Governments need to curb corporate power in emergency response, reconstruction, and food systems during disasters.

/ENDS

Notes to editors

Download Oxfam’s report “Disaster Divide” and methodology note.

Oxfam’s analysis finds that 1.18 million or 78 percent of excess deaths due to heat will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Since 1990, carbon emissions from the richest 1 percent have caused global economic output to drop by $2.9 trillion. By 2050, this will rise to $52.6 trillion, equivalent to a 0.5 percent loss of global cumulative GDP over that period. The heaviest economic toll will fall on the countries least responsible for climate change.

According to the International Organization for Migration, as many as 1 billion people could be displaced by the climate crisis by 2050. The frequency and intensity of these events is rising as a direct result of climate change.

Contact information:

Interviews are available, please reach out to [email protected]

Nepal’s catastrophic floods must be a wake-up call on climate action as death toll passes 1,000 warns Oxfam

  • A week on, search and rescue operations and humanitarian aid efforts are a desperate race against time.

  • Almost 4,000 people are missing, and some 50,000 people urgently need access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene.

  • Nepal produces just 0.1% of global emissions, yet communities are paying a devastating price as climate risks grow.

The catastrophic floods in Nepal are a stark warning of what a hotter world will mean for communities on the climate frontline and why governments and donors must invest now in climate resilience, adaptation and disaster preparedness, rather than waiting for the next disaster to strike, Oxfam has warned.

A week after the devastating floods, rescuers are still scrambling to reach people cut off by destroyed roads, bridges and landslides. Oxfam and local partners are racing to deliver life-saving assistance, but the scale of the destruction is making access to some of the worst-affected areas, particularly Rasuwa, increasingly difficult.

“Nepal contributes just 0.1% of global emissions, yet our communities are paying a devastating price as climate risks grow,” said Santosh Pandey, Oxfam in Nepal’s Humanitarian and Disaster Risk Management Lead.

“Nepal’s devastating floods should be a wake-up call for governments and donors. We cannot keep waiting for disasters to happen. In a burning world, climate shocks will become more frequent here and communities need the resources to prepare, adapt and become more resilient before the next disaster strikes.”

The Government of Nepal estimates that 10,000 households – around 50,000 people – require immediate access to clean water, toilets and hygiene, with thousands more in need of shelter and food.

Oxfam launched an emergency response a day after the floods struck. It is working with local authorities and partners in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading to reach some of the worst-affected communities.

The major flash flood on 26 August was triggered by a massive glacier collapse and ice-rock avalanche that blocked the Lhende Khola, 20km north of the Rasuwagadhi checkpoint. At least 1,000 people have been killed and 3,916 remain unaccounted for, while more than 50,000 people have been displaced or temporarily moved from their homes.

Nepal is highly exposed to floods, landslides and earthquakes. Climate change is adding further pressure through rapidly changing glaciers, snow and water systems and increasingly unpredictable extreme weather. The Himalayan region also faces growing risks from glacial floods in the years ahead.

Oxfam said far more investment is needed in climate adaptation, early warning systems, disaster preparedness and resilient infrastructure, particularly in countries that have contributed little to global emissions.

“The lesson from Nepal is clear: resilience saves lives,” said Pandey. “If we only fund the response after a disaster, we will always be one step behind. Communities need sustained investment to prepare for the shocks we know are coming.”

“But for now our focus must be on action – we are in a race against time to save lives and support everyone affected.”

He added: “We know that shelter, food and emergency hygiene kits are desperately needed. We are doing everything possible to reach the affected populations, but against such immense need, our contribution feels overwhelmingly small.”

Oxfam has deployed 200 hygiene kits and 1,000 water purification tablets to Rasuwa and distributed water, sanitation and hygiene and food assistance in other affected communities.

It is also preparing to scale up its response over the next six months, aiming to reach 2,000 households – around 10,000 people – with life-saving assistance including WASH, shelter, protection and cash support.

But Oxfam warns that emergency relief alone will not protect Nepal from the next shock.

“Nepal needs international solidarity now, but it also needs investment for the future,” said Pandey. “Climate action must become a priority, not an afterthought.”

Ends

For more information and interviews, please contact

Notes to editor

  • Oxfam has worked in Nepal since the 1980s, alongside communities and local partners to tackle inequality and deliver humanitarian and development programmes. Its work is grounded in strengthening civic space and supporting people to challenge the injustices that keep them in poverty, led by a feminist approach rooted in the Global South. Oxfam in Nepal works across three connected areas: climate and water, gender justice, and humanitarian response and disaster risk management.

  • Oxfam is working closely with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), the Social Welfare Council and District Administration Offices to deliver relief materials to affected communities.

Contact information:

Spokespeople in Nepal and New Zealand are available. To arrange interviews please contact: [email protected]

Oxfam launches Nepal flood response in worst-hit Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, as destroyed roads and swept-away bridges block relief efforts

Oxfam has launched an emergency response in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, the districts worst affected by last Wednesday’s flash flood, as roads and bridges swept away by the surge have left entire communities almost impossible to reach.

Oxfam Aotearoa Executive Director, Jason Myers, said “New Zealand and Nepal share a special bond, built through generations of friendship, travel and the many Nepali families who have made Aotearoa their home. So, when disaster strikes Nepal, it resonates deeply with people here in New Zealand.”

On Wednesday 26 August, a landslide and glacial event around 20km north of the Rasuwagadhi checkpoint blocked the Lhende Khola, triggering a major flash flood. At least 1,000 people have been killed and thousands more are missing across Nepal and Tibet. The surge then swept into the Trishuli River via Timure, Syaprubesi and Bhairabkunda, leaving families along the riverbanks of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha and Chitwan, in peril.

“Entire neighbourhoods are under mud and rescue teams are still digging. The water rose nine metres in half an hour. What we are seeing so far is only what we can reach,” said Santosh Pandey, Oxfam Humanitarian Lead in Nepal.

The collapse of roads, bridges, and communications has severely hampered relief efforts. The Government of Nepal’s has asked for 30 temporary bridges of 50 to 70 metres each, alongside food, shelter and water purification supplies. For now, reaching the hardest-hit communities depends almost entirely on-air access.

“The rivers are full of debris and sewage, and there is no piped supply left to fall back on. Getting clean water and safe sanitation to most affected people into these valleys is the priority now,” added Pandey.

Immediate humanitarian priorities remain concentrated around search and rescue, emergency shelter food, clean water, and hygiene items, particularly in the heavily affected and hard-to-reach areas of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading. The Government of Nepal estimates that 8,692 households – nearly 40,000 people – require emergency hygiene support and water purification, in addition to 3,130 dignity kits and nearly 4,000 baby kits for children under five.

As well as responding to the current humanitarian crisis, Oxfam is working with communities in Nepal to improve early warning systems that will save lives in future flooding events. Oxfam Aotearoa’s Advocacy and Policy Lead, Nick Henry, said “Climate change is increasing the risk of similar disasters as glaciers become more unstable and prone to collapse. Experts warn the danger of glacier collapse in the Himalayas could triple by the end of this century at the current rate of climate pollution.”

Oxfam, working with its partners and in close coordination with local authorities, is immediately supplying emergency hygiene kits, incorporating water purification solutions, for 200 households in the hardest-hit Rasuwa district. But Oxfam urgently needs $2 million NZD to scale up its response and reach 10,000 people with temporary shelter, clean water, and sanitation and hygiene kits.

Oxfam Aotearoa has launched an emergency appeal for funding to contribute to this humanitarian response. Myers said, “Oxfam is working with community partners in Nepal to provide families with clean water, hygiene supplies and other essential support following the devastating flash floods. We’re asking New Zealanders to stand with our friends in Nepal and give what they can to help families through this emergency.”

//END

Notes to editors

  • Oxfam has worked in Nepal since the 1980s, alongside communities and local partners to tackle inequality and deliver humanitarian and development programmes. Oxfam in Nepal works across three connected areas: climate and water, gender justice, and humanitarian response and disaster risk management.

  • Oxfam is working closely with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), the Social Welfare Council and District Administration Offices to deliver relief materials to affected communities.

Contact information:

Spokespeople in Nepal and New Zealand are available. To arrange interviews please contact: [email protected]

Rohingya Crisis Enters Tenth Year as Funding Cuts Put Lifesaving Services at Risk: Oxfam

As the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh enters its tenth year, Oxfam is warning that shrinking humanitarian resources risk undoing years of progress and placing already stretched essential services in Cox’s Bazar under even greater pressure.

Mallika, 36, has lived with her family in Camp 19 in Cox’s Bazar since arriving in Bangladesh in 2017. She said, “When we first came, there was hardly any support, and we suffered a lot. Later, NGOs helped with different lifesaving support and services. But now support is decreasing. I used to buy better food for my children. Now I borrow money for basic needs. It is very difficult to survive.”

Since the mass displacement of 2017, Bangladesh, host communities and international partners have sustained one of the world’s largest humanitarian responses, providing food, safe water and sanitation, shelter, healthcare, protection, education and disaster preparedness to Rohingya refugees. What began as an emergency response, however, has become a prolonged crisis.

Nearly 1.2 million Rohingya refugees are living in Bangladesh, including some 150,000 who have fled renewed violence in Myanmar since early 2024. The recalibrated 2026 Joint Response Plan (JRP) asks for $710.5 million – 26 percent below last year’s – covering little more than the minimum needed to sustain lifesaving assistance.

Anil Pant, Country Director of Oxfam in Bangladesh, said:

“The greatest danger is becoming accustomed to this crisis. Funding pressure now threatens systems built over nearly a decade. We must protect lifesaving services, strengthen resilience and local capacity, support host communities, and renew collective action towards sustainable solutions.”

Funding gaps remain substantial. In 2025, the first year of the 2025–26 Joint Response Plan, donors met just 46 percent of the $934.5 million appeal. The shortfall is now compounding. The cuts have already gutted vital services in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), food, health and protection sectors.

Oxfam’s new report, Holding the Line: WASH Systems, Risk and Resilience in the Rohingya Response, shows what is at stake:

Across Cox’s Bazar, emergency WASH interventions have evolved into a vast humanitarian public-health system, including 298 water networks, 320 production boreholes, 768 reservoir tanks, more than 7,000 tapstands, nearly 49,500 latrines, and 167 faecal sludge treatment plants. Yet the publication cautions that scale can hide fragility: ageing assets, dry-season water stress, monsoon exposure, uneven operational control and funding compression are increasing risk.

For women and girls, that strain is a question of safety and dignity as much as sanitation. Asmat Ara, 24, who lives with six family members in a Rohingya camp in Teknaf, said hygiene supplies have dwindled and safe facilities are scarce, making daily life harder.

“If it gets very late, I feel afraid to go outside,” she said. “Sometimes boys gather outside and make comments. I never go alone at night; I take my mother with me.”

She also described the growing pressure on menstrual hygiene support: “The pads should be provided again, and the material could also be improved. We also need more soap.”

Holding the public-health line, the report argues, now depends on steady financing for critical work, such as maintaining and repairing assets, controlling water quality, treating sewage, clearing waste and drains, keeping access safe, and acting fast when disease emerges.

Since 2017, Oxfam has worked alongside Rohingya and host communities, local partners, government institutions, UN agencies and donors across WASH, protection, livelihoods, food security, gender and community engagement. This work, which ranges from surface-water treatment and faecal sludge management to solar lighting, solid-waste systems, food production for dietary diversification, and skills development, shows that humanitarian assistance can protect lives while strengthening resilience and community capacities.

Oxfam is calling on the international community to provide predictable financing, protect essential services, strengthen locally led responses and build host-community resilience. A decade of international solidarity has saved lives and built critical systems. The tenth year must not become one of retreat but of renewed commitment, shared responsibility and credible action towards a sustainable future.

//END

Notes to Editors

• Check Oxfam’s Rohingya collection of stories and photos on inuru.
• Read Oxfam’s Holding the Line Report.
• Read Oxfam’s Rohingya Crisis: From Humanitarian Response to Sustainable Solutions report.
• For data on the Rohingya Crisis appeal and funding please check UNOCHA Financial Tracking Service.
• Oxfam have been working in Bangladesh since 1970, supporting people affected by disasters and conflict while advancing gender, climate and economic justice. Since 2017, Oxfam has been responding to the Rohingya crisis in Cox’s Bazar, working alongside refugees, host communities, local partners, government, UN agencies and donors. Its response combines lifesaving humanitarian assistance with longer-term resilience, including safe water, faecal sludge management, solar lighting, waste management, food production and livelihood skills. Across Bangladesh, Oxfam works to challenge inequality, strengthen communities and influence policies, seeking sustainable solutions that uphold rights, dignity and justice for the most vulnerable.

Contact information:

For more information, please contact: [email protected]

Holding the Line: WASH Systems, Risk and Resilience in the Rohingya Response

Read full report – Holding the Line: WASH Systems, Risk and Resilience in the Rohingya Response here.

This publication looks beyond the infrastructure in Cox’s Bazar, particularly in Rohingya camps,  that has been built over nearly a decade and asks a critical question: what will it take to keep these systems functioning safely and sustainably?

It combines technical evidence with four human stories, showing how WASH is experienced through everyday realities—safe water, sanitation, dignity, public health and resilience. It also highlights the growing risks created by ageing infrastructure, climate pressures, operational challenges and shrinking funding. We would strongly encourage colleagues working on WASH, humanitarian financing, resilience, climate, public health, advocacy and fundraising to read and use the publication, particularly the human stories and evidence for advocacy and engagement.

Since the large-scale influx in 2017, Bangladesh and the international community have sustained an extraordinary humanitarian response for Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Nearly a decade later, the challenge is shifting from emergency delivery to sustaining critical systems, protecting hard-won gains and building more resilient pathways for the future.

In Cox’s Bazar, WASH is experienced through ordinary routines: the time a tap opens, the condition of a path after rain, the lock on a latrine door, the availability of soap, the arrival of a waste collector, and the speed with which a complaint is resolved. These routines are easy to overlook when the response is described mainly through asset counts. Yet they are where public-health protection, dignity and trust are won or lost.

Contact information:

For more information contact: [email protected]

Rise Together: Funding Climate Resilience in Tuvalu

Read full report – Rise Together – Funding Climate Resilience in Tuvalu

The people of Tuvalu stand on the frontline of a global climate emergency they had no part in causing. Their efforts to overcome the existential threats of the climate crisis come with costs that they cannot and should not carry alone.

For Tuvalu to stay resilient to the escalating climate crisis requires a matching escalation of international support, alongside redoubled efforts to ensure the equitable, effective, and transparent use of resources. Funding resilience in a climate crisis is a complex challenge for Tuvalu and its international partners, but it is essential to get it right. Nothing less than the sovereignty and fundamental rights of the Tuvaluan people depends on it.

Key to the effort will be a broadening and deepening of adaptation efforts so that no one is left behind. This requires amplifying the voice and leadership of women, persons with disabilities, youth, and others who have too often been left out of decisions on funding climate adaptation, even as they carry the heaviest burdens of the crisis.

This report features an analysis of current climate finance flows, which reveals that international investments are heavily skewed toward large-scale physical engineering, often overlooking the critical social infrastructure necessary for holistic, locally led adaptation. Furthermore, the operational reality of these large-scale projects highlights broader systemic constraints. Relatively little of the international climate finance committed to Tuvalu is actually spent in Tuvalu. The majority of funds go to international contractors and consultants and to imported equipment and supplies. While some of this international spending is necessary, especially for large infrastructure projects, Tuvalu’s economy is receiving less benefit from international projects than other similar countries. Tuvalu should develop a local procurement framework to ensure that projects supported by international partners leave behind robust institutional memory and a strengthened domestic workforce capable of sustaining long-term adaptation. This could include joint venture arrangements where appropriate, along with requirements for local employment and skills development.

Additionally, this report promotes several recommendations:

  • Formalise Climate Tracking in the National Regulatory Framework

  • Establish a Sovereign Public Climate Finance Portal

  • Formalise Participatory Fiscal Tracking

  • Implement a ‘Local Joint-Venture’ Procurement Policy

  • Negotiate Budget Support for Permanent Civil Service Roles

  • Guarantee Kaupule Access to Coordinated Climate Project Support

  • Establish a Baseline Target for ‘Social Infrastructure

Contact information:

For more information contact: [email protected]