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Oxfam reaction to the outcome of the Santa Marta conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels

In response to the outcome of the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia, Oxfam Climate Policy Lead Mariana Paoli said:

“The fact that more than 50 countries came together to start developing a path to move away from fossil fuels must be celebrated. The People’s Summit demonstrated that there are many ways to implement a just transition, and the crucial role civil society can play in this process.

“However, it is disappointing that wealthy governments have still not stepped up to provide sufficient climate financing for poorer countries, which face the brunt of the impacts of the climate crisis, to make this move. Rich countries hold the historical responsibility for the climate crisis, therefore they must not only move first and faster but also provide finance at scale for others to follow them.

“A just transition must make rich polluters pay for the crisis they have caused. While households around the world struggle with skyrocketing energy prices amidst geopolitical instability, the biggest fossil fuel corporations rake in record-breaking profits, with most of those gains going into the hands of the richest 1 percent. Taxing the super-rich and big polluters to fund a just transition is the obvious viable solution that governments must choose.

“Santa Marta is just the first step of the process to a just transition. Between now and the next conference that will be hosted by Tuvalu and Ireland in 2027, governments must continue to build a momentum for a fair and equitable energy transition.”

Notes to Editors

In the context of the global energy crisis, Oxfam commissioned new polling by market research company Norstat in April 2026, from people in seven countries (UK, France, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, the Netherlands and Colombia). It found that three times as many citizens supported greater government investment in renewable energy compared to increasing fossil fuel extraction, and approximately two thirds (68 percent) supported increasing taxes on the profits of large oil and gas corporations to help fund the transition to renewables. Download the results.

Contact information:

[email protected]

Fossil fuel companies projected to earn almost $3,000 a second in 2026 while families struggle to afford energy bills worldwide

Six of the biggest fossil fuel companies are projected to earn $2,967 a second in profits in 2026, new Oxfam research finds, ahead of the first global conference this week on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia.

This marks an increase of almost $37 million a day compared to the 2025 profits of these six corporations – Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and TotalEnergies. Their total projected fossil fuel profits of 2026 are $94 billion: enough to provide solar power for the energy needs of almost 50 million people in Africa.

In the context of the global energy crisis, Oxfam commissioned new polling in seven countries. It found that three times as many citizens supported greater government investment in renewable energy compared to increasing fossil fuel extraction, and approximately two thirds (68 percent) supported increasing taxes on the profits of large oil and gas corporations to help fund the transition to renewables.

Currently, families around the world continue to be pushed into energy poverty as geopolitical instability, the impacts of escalating violence in the Middle East that has already taken many lives, and the sharp increase in the wealth of the super-rich in contrast to everyone else is leaving ordinary people struggling to make ends meet.

A huge proportion of the profits from fossil fuels are going straight into the pockets of the wealthiest 1%, based mainly in the Global North, who are profiting from the subsequent climate destruction these corporations cause while working to maintain global dependence on fossil fuels by monopolising wealth and political influence.

“A just transition away from fossil fuels must support people in poorer countries, who face the brunt of climate disasters while their governments are forced to spend more money on repaying debts than on education or health, let alone climate adaptation,” said Mariana Paoli, Climate Policy Lead at Oxfam. “Taxing the richest polluters who have no intention of investing in a clean future is central to a just transition. At Santa Marta, governments must end the pollutocrat era.”

Fossil fuel corporations and the super-rich that profit from them are entrenching inequality and turning their backs on the people most impacted by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis. Just last month, ExxonMobil announced a significant reduction of a third of its planned investment in low-carbon energy projects and TotalEnergies refused to adopt a net zero transition plan aligned with 1.5 degrees.

At Santa Marta, Oxfam urges governments to:

  • Scale up public climate finance. Introduce measures to tax the corporations and the super-rich profiting from fossil fuels and the cost-of-living crisis, including through a Rich Polluter Profit Tax on fossil fuel corporations and an Excess Profit Tax across all sectors. They must tackle unsustainable sovereign debt through debt cancellation, fair restructuring, and by adopting a UN framework on sovereign debt.

  • Put justice at the heart of the energy transition through principles of responsible divestment. States and fossil fuel corporations must address the environmental damage and livelihood loss they’ve caused and centre the rights and participation of those communities most impacted by extractive industries.

  • Implement an equity-based roadmap to end fossil fuels that reflects the historical responsibility, financial capacity and fossil fuel dependence of different states.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Download our methodology note.

The global poll, conducted by market research company Norstat in April 2026, gathered responses from people in seven countries (UK, France, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, the Netherlands and Colombia). The polling also showed that support for taxing oil and gas corporations to fund the renewable energy transition crossed party lines. In six of the countries, there were more far-right respondents who supported such a tax, than those who opposed it. Download the results.

Oxfam’s report “Unjust Transition” outlines how the richest 0.1 percent are undermining efforts at a just energy transition through overconsumption of the carbon budget and investing in fossil-intensive industries. If just one year’s energy consumption of the wealthiest 1 percent were redistributed, it could meet the modern energy needs of all the people in the world without electricity seven times over. The cost of the energy needs in different countries is in the report methodology note.

See Oxfam Aotearoa’s report “Closing Time” on why Aotearoa needs a just transition from fossil fuel production.

Contact information:

For more information or to arrange an interview, please reach out to:

[email protected]

Nearly 80 percent of millionaires think super-rich buy political influence

  • New poll of 3900 millionaires in G20 countries also finds six in ten think President Trump has had negative impact on global economic stability

  • Nearly 400 millionaires from 24 countries – including Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno, and Abigail Disney – sign open letter to world leaders at Davos calling on them to tax the super-rich

As political leaders gather for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, millionaires from around the world say elected representatives must tackle the existential global crisis posed by extreme wealth, by taxing the super-rich.

Polling on behalf of Patriotic Millionaires has found that 77 percent of millionaires polled from G20 countries think extremely wealthy individuals buy political influence, with 71 percent believing that those with extreme amounts of wealth can use it to significantly influence election outcomes.

Donald Trump’s presidency was also critiqued by the millionaires: six in ten polled believe it has had both a negative impact on global economic stability, and a negative impact on affordability for everyday people. But while his presidency has sent a clear warning sign to the rest of the world about the power of the super-rich, this is not solely a U.S. phenomenon. The danger of extreme wealth is undermining societies worldwide

The polling also found:

  • 82 percent think there should be a limit to how much money politicians and political parties can receive from individuals

  • 62 percent think that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy

  • Six in ten think that extreme wealth prevents ordinary people from living a decent life and is damaging social trust

  • 69 percent think the influence of the superrich over politicians is preventing action on tackling inequality

  • Only 17 percent oppose higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis, with 65 percent supporting higher taxes on the super-rich

The survey comes as nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries, including Mark Ruffalo, Brian Cox, Brian Eno and Abigail Disney, have signed an open letter, Time To Win. It calls on global leaders attending the conference in Davos to win back our futures by taxing the super-rich.

The letter, coordinated by Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity and Oxfam International, states: “When even millionaires, like us, recognise that extreme wealth has cost everyone else everything else, there can be no doubt that society is dangerously teetering off the edge of a precipice. We are worn out watching this happen. We want our democracies back. We want our communities back. We want our future back.”

Mark Ruffalo, award-winning American actor and director, said: “Americans are confronted with the challenge of a lawless president who believes that the only limit to his power is his own morality and mind. But Donald Trump and the unique threat that he poses to American democracy did not come about overnight. Extreme wealth inequality enabled his every step, and is the root cause of the trend towards authoritarianism we’re witnessing in the U.S. and around the world. If leaders at Davos are serious about the threat to democracy and the rule of law, they must get serious about combatting extreme wealth concentration. That includes taxing wealthy people like me too. If we are to have democracy, not oligarchy, taxing the rich is essential to giving power back to the people.”

New figures from Oxfam International show just how vast the public to private wealth transfer has been over the last 50 years. The richest 1% now own three times more wealth than the world’s total public wealth. In 1975 the gap between public and private wealth was around $36 trillion, by 2024 the difference was $435 trillion and if this growth continues on the same trajectory, by 2075, private wealth will have surged ahead of public wealth by almost $900 trillion.

Public wealth includes assets owned by society, like public land and parks, hospitals, schools, road networks, barracks, social housing and law courts.

Brian Eno, musician, artist and member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, said: “It is impossible to ignore the brutal levels of economic inequality people are living with, and it’s only getting worse. Over the past few years we have felt the full force of extreme wealth stripping us of our political power, our economic security, and the public wealth we share as a country. The super- rich have been winning for long enough, now it’s time for everyone else to win. We want our security back, our communities back, the wealth of our countries back – and we want our democracies back. It’s time to tax the super-rich.”

Claire Trottier, philanthropist, business owner and chair of the Board of Patriotic Millionaires Canada, said: “It should be obvious to anyone, no matter how wealthy, that extreme wealth inequality is destabilizing democracies, economies, and societies around the world. You don’t need a crystal ball. It’s happening right now, and governments need to act with urgency before it’s too late. Taxation is the best tool the government has to constrain dangerous levels of wealth inequality, but as it stands, the tax code is only helping to make things worse.”

Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International Executive Director said: “Last year the rise in billionaire wealth was unprecedented. The super-rich are being given complete free rein, it is beyond comprehension that the richest 1% now own three times more than the world’s total public wealth combined. It’s a stark indictment that illustrates just how nonsensical the gulf now is between oligarchs and the rest of humanity. Governments must implement taxes on the super-rich now and prioritize reducing inequality, the world cannot continue on this obscene trajectory.”

Ends

Notes to editor

Time to Win letter and full list of signatories

Summary of G20 millionaires survey on attitudes towards extreme wealth – 3,900 people with more than $1 million in assets, excluding their homes, were surveyed by Survation between December 2025 and January 2026 across G20 countries.

Key results of polling conducted by Survation

●      62 percent of millionaires polled think that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy

●      81 percent of millionaires polled think extremely wealthy individuals can access politicians via their wealth

●      77 percent think that extremely wealthy individuals buy political influence

●      82 percent think there should be a limit to how much money politicians and political parties can receive from individuals

●      61 percent think our political leaders should do more to tackle extreme wealth

●      6 in ten think extreme wealth is harmful to democracy, factual media and social trust

●      6 in ten think extreme wealth prevents ordinary people from living a decent life and is damaging social trust

●      65 percent support higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis

●      Only 17 percent oppose higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis

●      71 percent think that extremely wealthy individuals can use their wealth to  significantly influence election outcomes

●      69 percent think the influence of the superrich over politicians is preventing action on tackling inequality

●      Six in ten think that Donald Trump has had a negative impact both on global economic stability and on affordability for everyday people

Contact information:

For more information or to arrange an interview, please reach out to:

Harry Stanbridge, Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

Billionaire wealth jumps three times faster in 2025 to highest peak ever, sparking dangerous political inequality says Oxfam

Billionaires 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people

Billionaire wealth jumped by over 16 per cent in 2025, three times faster than the past five-year average, to $18.3 trillion – its highest level in history, according to a new Oxfam report today as the World Economic Forum opens in Davos.

Billionaire wealth has increased by 81 per cent since 2020. This comes as one in four people don’t regularly have enough to eat and nearly half the world’s population live in poverty.

The report “Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Defending Freedom Against Billionaire Power” analyses how the super-rich are securing political power to shape the rules of our economies and societies for their own gain and to the detriment of the rights and freedoms of people around the world.

The surge in billionaire wealth coincides with the US Trump administration pursuing a pro-billionaire agenda. It has slashed taxes for the super-rich, undermined global efforts to tax large corporations, reversed attempts to address monopoly power and contributed to the growth of AI-related stocks that have provided a boon to super-rich investors world-wide.

His presidency has sent a clear warning sign to the rest of the world about the power of the ultra-rich. Rather than solely a US phenomenon Oxfam’s paper demonstrates that rising oligarchy is undermining societies worldwide. Oxfam’s report finds:

  • The collective wealth of billionaires last year surged by $2.5 trillion, almost equivalent to the total wealth held by the bottom half of humanity – 4.1 billion people.

  • The number of billionaires topped 3,000 last year for the first time, while the richest, Elon Musk, became the first ever to surpass half a trillion dollars.

  • Billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people.

  • The $2.5 trillion rise in billionaires’ wealth would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over.

New Zealand has four people with over a billion US dollars of wealth. These four billionaires together own more wealth than a third of New Zealanders, over 1.8 million people combined. At the same time, more than 900,000 people in Aotearoa suffer from food insecurity, over 17% of the population.  

“It’s obscene to see such a massive accumulation of wealth by so few individuals, while nearly a million people in Aotearoa can’t afford enough to eat” said Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Advocacy and Policy Lead.

“No-one should be going hungry in a society that produces so much wealth. We need our political leaders to stand up to the billionaires and multi-millionaires and say we’re going to tax this extreme wealth so that every Kiwi family can have a decent quality of life.”

“The widening gap between the rich and the rest is at the same time creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable.” said Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

Oxfam estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary citizens. A World Values Survey of 66 countries found that almost half of all people polled say that the rich often buy elections in their country.

“Governments are making wrong choices to pander to the elite and defend wealth while repressing people’s rights and anger at how so many of their lives are becoming unaffordable and unbearable,” Behar said.

Billions of people are being left facing avoidable hardships of poverty, hunger and death from preventable diseases because the system is rigged against them. Worldwide one in four people face food insecurity, having to regularly skip meals.

The rate of poverty reduction has stagnated with levels broadly where they were in 2019. Extreme poverty is rising again in Africa. Political decisions made by governments across the world last year to slash aid budgets have directly hit people living in poverty and could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.

Civil liberties and political rights are being rolled back and suppressed; 2024 was the nineteenth successive year of decline with a quarter of all countries curtailing freedoms of expression. Last year there were more than 142 significant anti-government protests across 68 countries which authorities typically met with violence.

“Being economically poor creates hunger. Being politically poor creates anger.” said Behar.

The chances of democratic backsliding through, for example, the erosion of the rule of law or the undermining of elections is seven times more likely in highly unequal countries. “No country can afford to be complacent. The pace that economic and political inequality can hasten the erosion of people’s rights and safety can be frighteningly fast,” he said.

Governments are allowing the super-rich to dominate media and social media companies. Billionaires own more than half the world’s largest media companies and all the main social media companies.

The report cites Jeff Bezos’ purchase of the Washington Post, Elon Musk with Twitter/X, Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times and a billionaire consortium buying large shares of The Economist. In France, far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré now controls CNews, rebranding it as the French equivalent of Fox News. In the UK, three-quarters of newspaper circulation is controlled by four super-rich families.  

The report cites evidence that only 27% of top editors globally are female and just 23% belong to racialized groups respectively. This has seen their voices marginalized, while minorities like immigrants and people of colour are often stigmatized and scapegoated and critics silenced.

Authorities in Kenya have used X to track, punish and even abduct and torture government critics. A study by the University of California meanwhile found that in the months following Elon Musk’s acquisition of X the rates of hate speech increased by about 500 per cent.

“Our societies feel more toxic today because they demonstrably are, but not always for the reasons we’re being told. The outsized influence that the super-rich have over our politicians, economies and media has deepened inequality and led us far off track on tackling poverty. Governments should be listening to the needs of the people on things like quality healthcare, action on climate change and tax fairness,” Behar said.

Oxfam is calling on governments to prioritise:

  • Realistic and time-bound National Inequality Reduction Plans, with well-established benchmarks and regular monitoring of progress.

  • Effectively taxing the super-rich to reduce their power, including with broad-base taxes on income and wealth at high enough rates to reduce massive levels of inequality.

  • Stronger firewalls between wealth and politics including by tougher regulations against lobbying and campaign financing by the rich, ensuring more media independence, and banning hate speech.

  • Accountability for the political empowerment of ordinary citizens, including stronger protection for people’s freedoms of association, assembly and expression and for civil society organisations and trade unions.

Ends

Notes to Editor:

Contact information:

For more information or to arrange an interview, please reach out to:

Harry Stanbridge, Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

Wealth of five richest men doubles since 2020 as five billion people made poorer in “decade of division,” says Oxfam

  • Fortunes of five richest men have shot up by 114 percent since 2020.
  • Oxfam predicts the world could have its first-ever trillionaire in just a decade while it would take more than two centuries to end poverty. 
  • A billionaire is running or the principal shareholder of 7 out of 10 of the world’s biggest corporations.
  • 148 top corporations made $1.8 trillion in profits, 52 percent up on 3-year average, and dished out huge payouts to rich shareholders while hundreds of millions faced cuts in real-term pay.
  • Oxfam urges a new era of public action, including public services, corporate regulation, breaking up monopolies and enacting permanent wealth and excess profit taxes.

The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020 —at a rate of $14 million per hour— while nearly five billion people have been made poorer, reveals a new Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power. If current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade but poverty won’t be eradicated for another 229 years.

“Inequality Inc.”, published today as business elites gather in the Swiss resort town of Davos, reveals that seven out of ten of the world’s biggest corporations have a billionaire as CEO or principal shareholder. These corporations are worth $10.2 trillion, equivalent to more than the combined GDPs of all countries in Africa and Latin America.

“We’re witnessing the beginnings of a decade of division, with billions of people shouldering the economic shockwaves of pandemic, inflation and war, while billionaires’ fortunes boom. This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

“Runaway corporate and monopoly power is an inequality-generating machine: through squeezing workers, dodging tax, privatizing the state, and spurring climate breakdown, corporations are funneling endless wealth to their ultra-rich owners. But they’re also funneling power, undermining our democracies and our rights. No corporation or individual should have this much power over our economies and our lives —to be clear, nobody should have a billion dollars”.

The past three years’ supercharged surge in extreme wealth has solidified while global poverty remains mired at pre-pandemic levels. Billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020, and their wealth has grown three times faster than the rate of inflation. 

  • Despite representing just 21 percent of the global population, rich countries in the Global North own 69 percent of global wealth and are home to 74 percent of the world’s billionaire wealth. 
  • Share ownership overwhelmingly benefits the richest. The top 1 percent own 43 percent of all global financial assets. They hold 48 percent of financial wealth in the Middle East, 50 percent in Asia and 47 percent in Europe. 

Mirroring the fortunes of the super-rich, large firms are set to smash their annual profit records in 2023. 148 of the world’s biggest corporations together raked in $1.8 trillion in total net profits in the year to June 2023, a 52 percent jump compared to average net profits in 2018-2021. Their windfall profits surged to nearly $700 billion. The report finds that for every $100 of profit made by 96 major corporations between July 2022 and June 2023, $82 was paid out to rich shareholders.

  • Bernard Arnault is the world’s second richest man who presides over luxury goods empire LVMH, which has been fined by France‘s anti-trust body. He also owns France’s biggest media outlet, Les Échos, as well as Le Parisien. 
  • Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, holds a “near-monopoly” on cement in Nigeria. His empire’s expansion into oil has raised concerns about a new private monopoly.  
  • Jeff Bezos’s fortune of $167.4 billion increased by $32.7 billion since the beginning of the decade. The US government has sued Amazon, the source of Bezos’ fortune, for wielding its “monopoly power” to hike prices, degrade service for shoppers and stifle competition.

“Monopolies harm innovation and crush workers and smaller businesses. The world hasn’t forgotten how pharma monopolies deprived millions of people of COVID-19 vaccines, creating a racist vaccine apartheid, while minting a new club of billionaires,” said Behar.

People worldwide are working harder and longer hours, often for poverty wages in precarious and unsafe jobs. The wages of nearly 800 million workers have failed to keep up with inflation and they have lost $1.5 trillion over the last two years, equivalent to nearly a month (25 days) of lost wages for each worker. 

New Oxfam analysis of World Benchmarking Alliance data on more than 1,600 of the largest corporations worldwide shows that 0.4 percent of them are publicly committed to paying workers a living wage and support a living wage in their value chains. It would take 1,200 years for a woman working in the health and social sector to earn what the average CEO in the biggest 100 Fortune companies earns in a year. 

Oxfam’s report also shows how a “war on taxation” by corporations has seen the effective corporate tax rate fall by roughly a third in recent decades, while corporations have relentlessly privatized the public sector and segregated services like education and water.

“We have the evidence. We know the history. Public power can rein in runaway corporate power and inequality —shaping the market to be fairer and free from billionaire control. Governments must intervene to break up monopolies, empower workers, tax these massive corporate profits and, crucially, invest in a new era of public goods and services,” said Behar. 

“Every corporation has a responsibility to act but very few are. Governments must step up. There is action that lawmakers can learn from, from US anti-monopoly government enforcers suing Amazon in a landmark case, to the European Commission wanting Google to break up its online advertising business, and Africa’s historic fight to reshape international tax rules.”

Oxfam is calling on governments to rapidly and radically reduce the gap between the super-rich and the rest of society by: 

  • Revitalizing the state. A dynamic and effective state is the best bulwark against extreme corporate power. Governments should ensure universal provision of healthcare and education, and explore publicly-delivered goods and public options in sectors from energy to transportation. 
  • Reining in corporate power, including by breaking up monopolies and democratizing patent rules. This also means legislating for living wages, capping CEO pay, and new taxes on the super-rich and corporations, including permanent wealth and excess profit taxes. Oxfam estimates that a wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires could generate $1.8 trillion a year.  
  • Reinventing business. Competitive and profitable businesses don’t have to be shackled by shareholder greed. Democratically-owned businesses better equalize the proceeds of business. If just 10 percent of US businesses were employee-owned, this could double the wealth share of the poorest half of the US population, including doubling the average wealth of Black households. 

Notes to editors

Download Oxfam’s report “Inequality Inc.” and the methodology note.

The top five richest billionaires are from the Forbes real-time billionaires list as of the end of November 2023.

It will take 229 (almost 230) years to ensure the number of people living under the World Bank poverty line of $6.85 was reduced to zero.

According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook Database, the combined GDP of economies in Africa in 2023 is $2,867 billion, while that of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean is $6,517 billion, for a total of $9.4 trillion.

Oxfam defines windfall profits as those exceeding the 2018-2021 average by more than 20 percent. 

Richest 1% bag nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years

  • Super-rich outstrip their extraordinary grab of half of all new wealth in past decade.
  • Billionaire fortunes are increasing by US$2.7 billion (NZ$4.2 billion) a day even as at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages.
  • A tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise US$1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.

The richest 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth US$42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, reveals a new Oxfam report today. During the past decade, the richest 1 percent had captured around half of all new wealth.

“Survival of the Richest” is published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Elites are gathering in the Swiss ski resort as extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.

“While ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. Just two years in, this decade is shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires —a roaring ‘20s boom for the world’s richest,” said Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International.

“Taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today’s overlapping crises. It’s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the super-rich have shown that a rising tide doesn’t lift all ships —just the superyachts.”

Billionaires have seen extraordinary increases in their wealth. During the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis years since 2020, US$26 trillion (63 percent) of all new wealth was captured by the richest 1 percent, while US$16 trillion (37 percent) went to the rest of the world put together. A billionaire gained roughly US$1.7 million for every US$1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent. Billionaire fortunes have increased by US$2.7 billion a day. This comes on top of a decade of historic gains —the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled over the last ten years.

Billionaire wealth surged in 2022 with rapidly rising food and energy profits. The report shows that 95 food and energy corporations have more than doubled their profits in 2022. They made US$306 billion in windfall profits, and paid out US$257 billion (84 percent) of that to rich shareholders. The Walton dynasty, which owns half of Walmart, received US$8.5 billion over the last year. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, owner of major energy corporations, has seen this wealth soar by US$42 billion (46 percent) in 2022 alone. Excess corporate profits have driven at least half of inflation in Australia, the US and the UK.

At the same time, at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, and over 820 million people —roughly one in ten people on Earth— are going hungry. Women and girls often eat least and last, and make up nearly 60 percent of the world’s hungry population. The World Bank says we are likely seeing the biggest increase in global inequality and poverty since WW2. Entire countries are facing bankruptcy, with the poorest countries now spending four times more repaying debts to rich creditors than on healthcare. Three-quarters of the world’s governments are planning austerity-driven public sector spending cuts —including on healthcare and education— by US$7.8 trillion over the next five years.

Oxfam is calling for a systemic and wide-ranging increase in taxation of the super-rich to claw back crisis gains driven by public money and profiteering. Decades of tax cuts for the richest and corporations have fueled inequality, with the poorest people in many countries paying higher tax rates than billionaires.

Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, paid a “true tax rate” of about 3 percent between 2014 and 2018. Aber Christine, a flour vendor in Uganda, makes US$80 a month and pays a tax rate of 40 percent.

Worldwide, only four cents in every tax dollar now comes from taxes on wealth. Half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants. They will pass on a US$5 trillion tax-free treasure chest to their heirs, more than the GDP of Africa, which will drive a future generation of aristocratic elites. Rich people’s income is mostly unearned, derived from returns on their assets, yet it is taxed on average at 18 percent, just over half as much as the average top tax rate on wages and salaries.

The report shows that taxes on the wealthiest used to be much higher. Over the last forty years, governments across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas have slashed the income tax rates on the richest. At the same time, they have upped taxes on goods and services, which fall disproportionately on the poorest people and exacerbate gender inequality. In the years after WW2, the top US federal income tax rate remained above 90 percent and averaged 81 percent between 1944 and 1981. Similar levels of tax in other rich countries existed during some of the most successful years of their economic development and played a key role in expanding access to public services like education and healthcare.

“Taxing the super-rich is the strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy. We need to do this for innovation. For stronger public services. For happier and healthier societies. And to tackle the climate crisis, by investing in the solutions that counter the insane emissions of the very richest,” said Bucher.

According to new analysis by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam and the Patriotic Millionaires, an annual wealth tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise US$1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, fully fund the shortfalls on existing humanitarian appeals, deliver a 10-year plan to end hunger, support poorer countries being ravaged by climate impacts, and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for everyone living in low- and lower middle-income countries.

Oxfam is calling on governments to:

  • Introduce one-off solidarity wealth taxes and windfall taxes to end crisis profiteering.
  • Permanently increase taxes on the richest 1 percent, for example to at least 60 percent of their income from labor and capital, with higher rates for multi-millionaires and billionaires. Governments must especially raise taxes on capital gains, which are subject to lower tax rates than other forms of income.
  • Tax the wealth of the richest 1 percent at rates high enough to significantly reduce the numbers and wealth of the richest people, and redistribute these resources. This includes implementing inheritance, property and land taxes, as well as net wealth taxes.

 

Notes to editors

Download “Survival of the Richest” and the methodology document outlining how Oxfam calculated the statistics in the report.

Oxfam’s calculations are based on the most up-to-date and comprehensive data sources available. Figures on the very richest in society come from the Forbes billionaire list.

All amounts are expressed in US dollars and, where relevant, have been adjusted for inflation using the US consumer price index.

According to the World Bank, extreme poverty increased in 2020 for the first time in 25 years. At the same time, extreme wealth has risen dramatically since the pandemic began.

The report shows that while the richest 1 percent captured 54 percent of new global wealth over the past decade, this has accelerated to 63 percent in the past two years. US$42 trillion of new wealth was created between December 2019 and December 2021. US$26 trillion (63 percent) was captured by the richest 1 percent, while US$16 trillion (37 percent) went to the bottom 99 percent. According to Credit Suisse, individuals with more than US$1 million in wealth sit in the top 1 percent bracket.

The billionaire class is US$2.6 trillion richer than before the pandemic, even if billionaire fortunes slightly fell in 2022 after their record-smashing peak in 2021. The world’s richest are now seeing their wealth climb again.

In the US, the UK and Australia, studies have found that 54 percent, 59 percent and 60 percent of inflation, respectively, was driven by increased corporate profits. In Spain, the CCOO (one of the country’s largest trade unions) found that corporate profits are responsible for 83.4 percent of price increases during the first quarter of 2022.

The World Bank announced that the world has almost certainly lost its goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and that “global progress in reducing extreme poverty has grind[ed] to a halt” amid what the Bank says was likely to be the largest increase in global inequality and the largest setback in global poverty since WW2. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$2.15 per day.

Elon Musk paid a “true tax rate” of just 3.27 percent from 2014 to 2018, according to ProPublica.

The US$6.85 poverty line was used to calculate how many people (2 billion) an annual wealth tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could lift out of poverty.

Polling consistently finds that most people across countries support raising taxes on the richest. For example, the majority of people in the US, 80 percent of Indians, 85 percent of Brazilians and 69 percent of people polled across 34 countries in Africa support increasing taxes on the rich.

Oxfam’s research shows that the ultra-rich are the biggest individual contributors to the climate crisis. The richest billionaires, through their polluting investments, are emitting a million times more carbon than the average person. The wealthiest 1 percent of humanity are responsible for twice as many emissions as the poorest 50 percent and by 2030, their carbon footprints are set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.