A damning new report from Oxfam calls for an EU wealth tax as the contribution of the EU’s richest to the climate crisis is laid bare.
ADVERTISEMENTThe richest 10 percent of the EU are responsible for as much carbon pollution as the poorest 50 percent, a new Oxfam report reveals.
“Their increasingly luxurious lifestyles and growing opulence are wreaking havoc on our planet,” says Chiara Putaturo, European tax expert at Oxfam. “Meanwhile, ordinary citizens are burdened by rising costs and the disastrous consequences of heatwaves, floods and landslides caused by human greed. »
These outsized emissions from Europe’s richest countries will cause an additional 67,800 heat-related deaths by 2100, the equivalent of nearly 850 deaths each year.
Should Europe introduce a new wealth tax?
The association calls for a European agreement wealth tax to raise nearly 250 billion euros per year which could be used to reduce pollution and inequalities.
Through the European Green Deal The EU has set ambitious climate targets, but questions remain about financing their implementation.
“We need a European wealth tax. Economists want it, multimillionaires want it and people want it,” Putaturo says.
The report also highlights the serious consequences global inequality fueling the climate crisis.
The richest 1 percent of the world’s population, which includes billionairesmillionaires and those earning more than $140,000 (128,172 euros), produced as much carbon pollution in 2019 as the five billion people who make up the poorest two-thirds of humanity.
He argues that we need “a radical new approach if we are to have any chance of overcoming the catastrophe unfolding before us.”
Greta Thunberg denounces the greed of the rich
In the foreword to the new report A Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg condemns the richest 1 percent for “sacrificing us on the altar of their greed.”
She continues: “The people most responsible for the climate crisis – primarily white, privileged men – are also the ones who have been entrusted with leading roles in getting us out of it.
“How did we leave the guilty in charge when the stakes are so high?
How can we fight global inequality?
Oxfam is calling on governments to significantly reduce inequality through global income redistribution in the form of a wealth tax.
It also calls for a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels and a shift in mindset that prioritizes the well-being of humans and the planet over profit and endless consumption.
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