Investment emissions

	Question	Answer	Validation timestamp
1	What can give a false picture of the true source of emissions?	Producers of raw materials, often in the Global South, are unfairly penalized.For example, companies producing aluminium for use in smartphones and other technology products, all the emissions are ascribed to their primary activity. [1]
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
2	What percentage of individual emissions were attributed to the investments of the world’s richest people in the Oxfam study ‘Carbon Billionaires’.	L.Chancel estimated that 50-70% of the emissions of the worlds wealthiest come from their investments [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
3	What is a billionaire’s yearly rate of emissions?	The average yearly rate of emissions of the 125 billionaire’s sampled by Oxfam in ‘Carbon Billionaires’ was 3.1 million tonnes / year. - This is equivalent to the emissions of France [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
4	How many times greater is the average billionaire’s yearly carbon emissions than the emissions of someone in the bottom 90% of humanity?	Over a million times the average emissions [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
5	How do the emissions of a billionaire’s investments compare with the average emissions from S&P500 investments?	The average billionaire’s investment related emissions calculated by Oxfam were double those associated with the S&P [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
6	What are the yearly emissions of someone in the worlds poorest 90%?	Someone in the worlds poorest 90% is estimated to emit on average 2.76 tonnes / year [3].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
7	What percentage of a billionaire’s investments are in polluting industries?	Oxfam found that an average of 14% of the investments in their 125 billionaire sample group were in polluting industries [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
8	What effect do the investments of the world’s richest people have on the economy?	In it’s ‘Carbon Billionaires’ report, Oxfam states that billionaires make help shape the future of our economy, for example by backing high carbon infrastructure, locking in high emissions for decades to come[2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
9	How can billionaire’s reduce the carbon intensity of their emissions?	It is estimated that 50-70% of billionaire’s emissions are related to their investments [1]. Oxfam states that if they moved their investments to funds with stronger environmental and social standards, they could reduce the intensity of their emissions by up to four times. [2]
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
10	What are the cumulative emissions of the worlds richest 1%?	Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) calculated that the richest 1% (around 63 million people) alone were responsible for 15% of cumulative emissions and that they were emitting 35 times the level ofCO2e compatible with the 1.5°C by 2030 goal of the Paris Agreement [4]
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
11	How much do CO2 do billionaire’s emit?	A study by Barros and Wilk drew on public records to estimate that in 2018 emissions from the private yachts, planes, helicopters and mansions of 20 billionaires generated on average about 8,194 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2e) [5]. By contrast, any individual among the poorest one billion people emits around 1.4 tonnes of CO2 each year [6].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
12	How severe are billionaire private jet travel emissions?	Recently, Twitter accounts tracking private jet travel have brought the issue of carbon inequality to public attention with revelations that, in a matter of just minutes, billionaires are emitting more CO2 than most people will emit in a year [7].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
13	Why are emissions associated with investments important?	It matters for two reasons: firstly, it is important to have an accurate understanding of the true scale of the emissions generated by the richest people in our society and the role that these emissions are playing in climate breakdown. Research conducted by Oxfam shows that while the personal consumption emissions of billionaires can be a thousand times higher than those of ordinary citizens, emissions from billionaire investments can be a million times higher than normal people [2]. Secondly, by looking at how the richest behave as investors, we can demonstrate not just their role as consumers of carbon but also their role as wealth holders who own, control, shape and financially profit from production processes that release greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
14	Why is understanding and directing the investments of the wealthy important?	Ordinary citizens often do not have a lot of control over their energy choices, particularly those in low- or middle-income groups. Poor public transport options can mean that people are forced to drive to work, for example. In contrast, investors can choose where they put their money. They can choose to put it into fossil fuel industries or other highly polluting activities, or into the activities of other corporate actors that are clearly failing to do enough to reduce their carbon emissions. The decisions that investors make now can potentially determine our emissions for decades to come – for instance, bad decisions on infrastructure investments can commit us to high levels of GHGs far into the future [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
15	How do mortality rates compare for extreme weather events for vulnerable and non-vulnerable countries?	The IPCC state that average mortality levels from floods, drought and storms over the past decade are 15 times higher for countries that are highly vulnerable to climate change – such as Mozambique, Somalia, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Haiti – compared with regions and countries that have low vulnerability, such as the UK, Australia, Canada and Sweden [8].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
16	What role do investors have in fighting for climate change?	During company engagement, shareholders should take a position on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and demand that the targeted corporates improve their practices over time. This can be a powerful lever to reduce the carbon footprint of large companies. Where shareholder engagement fails, investors can decide to disinvest.[3]
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
17	How do emissions from the investments of pension funds differ from those of billionaire investments?	The billionaires in the sample analysed by Oxfam fund 393m tonnes of CO2e per year, and the average emissions for each billionaire's investment are 3m tonnes of CO2e. By way of comparison, the average UK pension pot funds 23 tonnes of CO2e [[https://www.cushon.co.uk/blog/pension-funds-and-the-climate-crisis 10]]
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
18	Why do estimates underestimate emissions related to the investments of billionaire's?	Firstly, most corporate reporting is voluntary, and most is not of adequate quality. There are international standards and guidelines for measuring climate data, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol; however, as one analysis points out, ‘poor sustainability performers prefer low-quality sustainability disclosure to disguise their true performance’.58 This means that there is a systematic underestimation by corporates of their reported emissions [11]. Secondly, for most corporates, the majority of emissions (on average 75%) are indirect scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions from the oil and gas sector are even higher, accounting for about 88% of total emissions.61 A low-carbon economy cannot be achieved without addressing these emissions[12].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
19	What role have coporates had in the climate breakdown?	In March 2022, CDP found that, of the 13,000+ corporates that disclosed in 2021 – between them accounting for 64% of global market capital ($64tn) – just one-third (4,002) were developing a low-carbon transition plan. Fewer than 35% of corporates’ emissions reductions targets are what CDP consider credible and only 1,164 organizations have set science-based targets (SBTs) validated by the SBTi. Moreover, a paltry 1% of corporates (135) reported on all 24 of the CDP key indicators associated with a credible climate transition plan [13] . None of the G7 countries have a corporate sector that is aligned with the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
20	How can governments compel investors to reduce carbon emissions?	They should regulate to compel corporates to set strong and binding science-based targets to reduce carbon emissions to within the 1.5°C limit and must demand greater transparency and a unified and higher standard of reporting. This should be done though disclosure from the companies, ambitious but realistic targets and just planning. To speed the transition away from fossil fuels, investments in new fossil fuel extraction and use and in highly polluting industries should be strictly regulated and indeed banned in many instances. This can be complemented with steeply progressive rates of taxation. [2].
		Governments should tax wealth in order to reduce the numbers of very rich people in our society and their power. This will help to dramatically reduce the cumulative emissions of the richest and raise billions of dollars that can be used to help countries cope with the brutal impacts of climate breakdown and the losses and damages incurred [2][4].
		Regulate to reduce the primacy of maximizing returns for wealthy shareholders as well as introducing a wealth tax with a pollution top-up element [2].
		Introduce agreed mechanisms to track and report emissions within countries which take into account distributional and full carbon footprints and not just territorial emissions [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
21	How can corporate directors drive climate action?	Measuring and reporting their associated emissions
		Commit explicitly to a scenario of a maximum 1.5'C of warming.
		Do not finance any new extraction of fossil fuels, coal-fired power generation, or oil from tar sands in high-income countries, including in the Arctic (both onshore and offshore). In lower- and middle-income countries, finance should be limited to projects which demonstrate that the public benefits exceed the costs of extraction, taking into account the risk of potentially stranded assets. [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
22	How can company directors help in climate action?	Regularly requiring management report on climate performance and monitoring to ensure that the company reduces its contribution to climate change. [2].
		Ensuring that climate risk is a priority for the risk management committee at the board level. [2].
		Have an alternative answer? Type it here, add a new line for every alternative answer. Co-validated answers will be timestamped.
23	What are the conclusions from the Oxfam 'Carbon Billionaires' report?	Very rich people play a disproportionately large role in our fossil fuel economy, primarily through their investments. The distribution of carbon emissions between different income groups, and in particular the emissions of very high-income groups, is poorly reported and understood. [2].
		It is critical that we better understand the role of the very rich in the fossil fuel economy, especially the role of billionaires as owners of and investors in some of the world’s largest corporate actors and take urgent action to address the huge scale of their investment-based emissions. [2].
		dd
	dd