The Guardian10 Jun 2026Macro
Automatically composed with AI from the cited sources
Nearly $1tn a year in climate damage is attributable to the world’s richest individuals through their ownership of carbon-intensive assets, according to a Greenpeace study. The top 1% by wealth—those with assets above about $2m—control about a quarter of global annual emissions, with ownership-based emissions (those produced by businesses and tied to privately owned financial and physical assets) accounting for 60% of total carbon output. Within that group, the top 0.1% (above $7m) account for 17% of ownership-based emissions and the top 0.01% (above $38m) for 9%, while the bottom half of the world by wealth accounts for just 3%.