{"id":666913,"date":"2026-10-27T15:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T15:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666913\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T15:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T15:12:14","slug":"climate-disasters-will-force-1bn-people-to-move-from-their-homes-by-2050-new-report-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666913\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate disasters will force 1bn people to move from their homes by 2050, new report says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The richest 0.1 per cent of the world\u2019s population produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the poorest 44 per cent combined, research for Oxfam<\/a> shows. <\/p>\n

It means each of those 8 million billionaires and millionaires is responsible for carbon pollution equivalent to more than 437 low-income people. <\/p>\n

Oxfam\u2019s Disaster Divide report analyses the outsize emissions and impacts of the super-rich on the wider world. <\/p>\n

It finds that while the rich are responsible for a disproportionate share of carbon pollution, it is ordinary people who bear the brunt of the resulting floods, fires and famine. The rich escape the consequences personally because they can afford to protect themselves and their properties and have the luxury of mobility. <\/p>\n

It also finds the rich often benefit from climate disasters because prices of the commodities they control rise in a crisis. <\/p>\n

Jim Clarken, chief executive of Oxfam Ireland, said the statistics \u201cshould shake world leaders into action\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe brutal unfairness of this reality should be a rallying call to protest, to urgently demand legislative change and to fight for this planet and its people,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He said the fight was not just global but already on Ireland<\/a>\u2019s doorstep. <\/p>\n

\u201cClimate inequality is a mirror for larger societal gaps that Irish people also feel on a day-to-day basis,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing this with energy poverty and a powerful few using data centres in this country above the needs of its people.\u201d <\/p>\n

The report also calculates the emissions impact of the richest 1 per cent of the world\u2019s population, linking them to 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths. <\/p>\n

It also highlights the displacement of people due to climate disasters and says around 1 billion people will have been forced to move from their homes and lands by 2050, the majority from the global south. <\/p>\n

It says the emissions of the richest 1 per cent will cause nearly $53 trillion (\u20ac47 trillion) in damage from extreme weather events driven by human-caused climate change<\/a> by 2050. <\/p>\n

The report is released in the run-up to the Cop31 UN<\/a> climate summit which takes place in Turkey<\/a> next month. <\/p>\n

Oxfam Ireland is calling on Irish ministers attending the summit to also take action at home by introducing a moratorium on data centre expansion until the sector can demonstrate its growth is compatible with national emissions-reduction targets. <\/p>\n

The aid and development charity is also calling for a wealth tax, which it terms a \u201cpolluter pays\u201d tax, and a windfall tax on energy companies, with the revenues to be spent on communities most affected by climate change. <\/p>\n

It is also pushing for Ireland to increase its contribution to climate finance for poorer countries to at least \u20ac500 million annually \u2013 more than twice the current level. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The richest 0.1 per cent of the world\u2019s population produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the poorest 44…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[9638,2885,246,61,60,68021,82],"class_list":["post-666913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-carbon-emissions","tag-climate-change","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-oxfam","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}