Oligarchs and climate catastrophe: no coincidence

A recent edition of The Guardian's cartoon series First Dog on the Moon featured a banner proclaiming:

“Sometime in the next decade the world is on track to have more than 1,5 degrees of warming and also five trillionaires. What a remarkable coincidence!”

It is, of course, meant ironically. There is no coincidence. Extreme wealth and power concentrated on a small elite is a major driver of climate change. A system where a small, elite, and wealthy group wields significant economic and political power, often at the expense of the broader population and under the guise of democracy, is known as oligarchy. 

Oligarchs are typically billionaires and increasingly, as the quote suggests, trillionaires. The US is an oligarchy - and has been for some time - long before Trump and Musk took over. The US has 813 billionaires with a combined wealth of $5.7 trillion. Since around 1989, the super-rich in the US have grown approximately $21 trillion richer, while those with the lowest 50% of incomes have become $900 billion poorer. An Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) study found that the US's  50 wealthiest families held U$ 1.2 trillion in assets. This amount is equivalent to half the wealth the bottom 50% of all US households share. The IPS report also found that the assets of the wealthiest 50 families have grown by 1007% between 1983 and 2020. 

For these wealthy oligarchs, the game plan is simple: use economic wealth to get political might, which is again used to grow economic wealth. As just shown, this wealth has grown tremendously over time. That economics might translate into political power is clear. It was calculated in 2009 that  "Each of the top 400 or so richest Americans had on average about 22,000 times the political power of the average member of the bottom 90 per cent, and each of the top 100 or so had nearly 60,000 times as much." 

Oligarchs control four industries, particularly (and not exclusively), with a global impact and tremendous consequences for climate change.

First are the Food Barons: the ABCD  refers to Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus, who control around 90% of the global grain trade. They have been making record profits whilst the number of people who are food insecure in the world has increased. The Food Barons influence what and how farmers grow, which impacts land use. This contributes to increased emissions through practices such as deforestation for agricultural expansion, intensive livestock farming, and the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides. The transportation of food products, especially over long distances, also adds to the industry's carbon footprint. By 2015, the global food system accounted for  34% of total GHG emissions. 

A second oligarchic industry is the financial investment industry dominated by only three firms, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street. They control more than 40% of all public firms in the US. State Street alone had assets worth  $4.13 trillion in 2023 - worth more than the total GDP of Germany. The financial industry is at the forefront of financing carbon-emitting businesses and the financialization and commodification of nature. Moreover, as is well understood but not also appreciated, credit extension creates a demand for future energy, locking the entire economic system into a never-ending growth spiral with its inevitable ecological overshoot. 

George Monbiot has warned that the financialization of agriculture through the growing intertwining of food barons and financiers threatens global food security. This financialized, concentrated control has been estimated to be associated with damages to the global food system exceeding US$6 trillion annually. 

Then there are the defence contractors thriving on permanent war and who must salivate thinking of Mark Rutte's call that "Nato must spend more": Lockheed Martin, RTX Corp, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, BAE Systems, L3 Harris Technologies, Leonardo, Airbus, HII, Thales, Leidos, Amentum, Booz Allen Hamilton, Rheinmetall AG, Dassault Aviation, Elbit Systems, Rolls-Royce, Honeywell, and others. They benefit from total world military spending that now exceeds  US$2,2 trillion. 

Military activities are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily due to the heavy reliance on fossil fuels for powering military vehicles, aircraft, and operations. In 2019 a study revealed that "if the US military were a nation state, it would be the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world." 

And not to forget the ever-powerful and vital oil industry: The six largest private companies that control the most oil are ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, Eni, and TotalEnergie. Around 100 fossil-fuel companies are responsible for 71% of global industrial GHG emissions. The top 10 oil producers raked in US$2.5 trillion in revenue in 2024.  

The billionaires who control these and other firms are disproportionately contributing to carbon emissions. A study in Nature Sustainability found that the top 1% of the world population was responsible for 23% of total emissions growth since 1990, while the bottom 50% accounted for only 16%. Globally, the richest 1% have carbon footprints over 1,000 times greater than the poorest 1%. 

According to Oxfam, it would take about 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99 per cent to produce as much carbon as the wealthiest billionaires in a year. Every year, the richest 1% of the population's emissions cancel out the carbon savings from nearly one million wind turbines. This stark disparity arises from the consumption patterns of the wealthy, who typically possess larger homes, engage in more frequent air travel, and consume a greater share of energy-intensive goods and services. A study of 125 billionaires found that only one had invested in renewable energy. And that billionaire investments in heavy carbon emitting industries was double that of companies listed among the Standard & Poor 500. 

The political power that the oligarchs wield enables them to continue with these unsustainable extraction and business models unhindered. Their influence is so great that fossil fuel companies, in fact, continue to receive subsidies and licenses for further fossil fuel extraction. According to the IMF, the value of fossil fuel subsidies in 2022 was around US $7 trillion. It was recently revealed that a quarter of members of the US Congress own stocks in fossil fuel giants.  

Oligarchies get away with destroying the planet for their personal gain not only because of their direct political control but also because they have been undermining climate science- especially in the oil industry. They have also controlled media narratives, helped suppress dissent against climate change, and weakened regulatory bodies. Oligarchic systems often maintain a facade of democratic processes while manipulating power behind the scenes. This has led to an erosion of public trust in government institutions, a skewing of the political landscape, and the suppression of voices advocating for broader societal interests. This loss of trust in political institutions suits the oligarchs' agenda of undermining and neutralizing democracy.

In 2024, global warming exceeded the target of 1,5 degrees Celsius that was set to avoid potential catastrophic climate change if the world passess this tipping point. To save the planet, oligarchies must ultimately be dismantled, and ordinary citizens must regain control over policymaking. 

This is a tall order, which would include political reforms, alternative economic models, the empowerment of marginalized communities, and extensive support for social movements. Eventually, the proper taxation of the super-rich is needed. 

Oxfam has calculated that a 60% tax on the top 1% would reduce carbon emissions by 695 million tons, more than an industrialized country like the UK emits in a year. It has also been proposed that the top 21 polluting companies worldwide should pay $5.4 trillion over 26 years to compensate for their historical contributions to climate change.

But, of course, as the First Dog on the Moon  cartoon reminds us, 

"More bigger taxes! Sorry, but the people who bought the government said no." 

illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.