Rich nations could cover the climate-induced economic losses suffered by the world’s most vulnerable countries if they forced the fossil fuel industry to pay for the damage caused by their emissions, according to Oxfam International.
The profit from six large oil companies in the first half of 2022 was enough to offset the financial impacts of global-warming-fueled extreme weather events in low-income countries over the same period, with $70 billion left over, a new report from the nonprofit said. Economic losses in the 55 most climate-vulnerable countries have totaled more than half a trillion dollars over the past two decades, yet the fossil fuel industry’s profits were enough to counterbalance that almost 60 times over, the report said.
"It is an injustice that polluters who are disproportionately responsible for the escalating greenhouse gas emissions continue to reap these enormous profits while climate-vulnerable countries are left to foot the bill for the climate impacts destroying people’s lives, homes and jobs,” said Lyndsay Walsh, Oxfam’s climate policy adviser and co-author of the report. "We must end this delay.”