Oxfam says private jets emitted 16 million tonnes of CO2 in 2025, about two weeks before COP31

Report findings

Oxfam accuses the world's richest people of intensifying the climate crisis through their lifestyles and investment decisions. Its report, titled Disaster Divide and presented on Tuesday, 27 October 2026, states that private jets worldwide emitted 16 million tonnes of CO2 in 2025. In just two seconds, those flights produced more carbon than a person from the poorest half of the world's population produces in a full year. The study came out about two weeks before the COP31 UN climate conference in Turkey, and Oxfam wants large fortunes taxed more heavily.

Manuel Schmitt, Oxfam's referent for social inequality, put the case bluntly.

“Ultra-rich people are driving the world into climate collapse.”

He argued that a small minority produces a disproportionate share of emissions through its luxury consumption and investments, at the expense of the majority.

Investments and flights

The report examined the investments of 1,000 billionaires in 2025, and 71% of that money flowed into particularly polluting sectors such as oil, gas and chemicals. Oxfam says investment behaviour contributes substantially to the crisis, alongside flying. According to the report, a single private jet flight emits 3.7 tonnes of CO2 on average, nearly as much as an average person worldwide produces in a year. Oxfam puts the number of private jet users at about 250,000 people, which it equates with the richest 0.0003% of the world's population.

Germany and Switzerland

At German airports, more than 55,000 private jets took off in 2025, and their CO2 output came to more than 182,000 tonnes according to the report. Oxfam says those jets emitted in under half an hour more CO2 than an average German emits in an entire year, and it uses a per capita figure of 9.9 tonnes for Germany. The organisation did not compare per-passenger emissions of private and commercial flights. Solidar Suisse, a Swiss NGO, says Switzerland contributes above-average to the climate crisis and counts 5.5 times as many private jet departures as Germany. Based on its own analysis, the group puts the value of coal, oil and gas company securities held or managed by Swiss financial institutions at around US$126.9 billion.

Wealth gap and heat deaths

A separate Oxfam analysis released ahead of COP31 found that the richest 0.1%, around eight million people, produce more pollution than the 3.5 billion poorest people combined. Each person in that group contributed almost 400 times more to today's extreme heat waves than someone from the bottom 50%, according to the analysis. The richest 1% account for 20% of global warming recorded since 1990, emitting on average 100 times more per person than someone in the poorest half. Oxfam estimates that this group's emissions could cause 1.9 million additional heat-related deaths in a single year, 78% of them in low or lower-middle income countries that account for only 8% of global emissions. Oxfam says the wealthy can shield themselves through private insurance, safer housing and private firefighting, while most people face floods, fires and food insecurity. Oxfam International executive director Amitabh Behar said in a statement that those who contributed least to the crisis are losing their homes, harvests and, increasingly, their lives.

What comes next

The governments due to meet in November in Antalya, Turkey, for the 31st UN climate conference are the target of Oxfam's demands. The NGO asks them to make big polluters pay through permanent taxes on wealth and high incomes, levies on fossil fuel companies, and taxes on luxury goods with high emissions, such as private jets. Solidar Suisse separately urges the Swiss Federal Council to tax very high emissions more heavily and to require companies and financial actors to disclose their emissions and fossil investments. The Oxfam report was published about two weeks before that conference.