Oxfam assesses the benefits of the richest people in the world from climate disasters

The world’s richest people profit from both the polluting industries that exacerbate the climate crisis and the business of disaster preparedness and recovery. This conclusion was made by the authors of a study by the international organization Oxfam, reports The Guardian.

The organization predicts that the market for disaster preparedness, recovery and reconstruction will grow from $70 billion to $92 billion per year by 2029. According to the authors of the report, this creates additional incentives for the richest people to profit from the consequences of the climate crisis and may reduce their interest in measures to reduce emissions.

“The super-rich are benefiting in both phases of the crisis: first through continued investment in polluting industries, and then through investment in a rapidly growing ‘adaptation economy’ where recovery and reconstruction services are sold to an increasingly warmer world,” said Oxfam’s director of public engagement, Jean McLean.

The Oxfam index lists 217 companies that are either exacerbating the climate crisis or making a living from it. Among them are manufacturers of cooling systems, flood fences and firefighting equipment, as well as suppliers of transport, food, insurance and credit services.

The report also linked climate disasters to the rise of billionaires who control large food trading companies. Since 2020, their combined wealth has increased by $120 billion. Oxfam cited a 231% increase in cocoa prices following extreme weather events in West Africa in 2024. According to the organization, local farmers did not benefit from the rise in prices.

The organization called for higher taxes for wealthy people, private jet owners, oil and gas companies and other polluting companies. In addition, Oxfam advocated for increased international climate funding from the UK and the provision of funds in the form of grants, not loans.

A study previously conducted by scientists from the universities of Exeter (UK) and KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) within the framework of the UN program showed that it will not be possible to keep global warming within 1.5 ° C.

The scientists noted that it is now better for states to shift their efforts from preventing temperature exceedance to managing its consequences. The authors of the report warned that exceeding the threshold of global temperature growth by 1.5 ° C will lead to extreme weather, melting glaciers and the death of coral reefs, which could disappear entire island and coastal states.

“Every fraction of a degree will cost lives, destroy livelihoods, increase inequality and push ecosystems to irreversible damage,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Humanity is rapidly approaching a point beyond which it will be impossible to avoid a climate catastrophe.

In September 2025, US President Donald Trump declared that climate change warnings were “the greatest fraud ever committed in the world.” The American leader called clean energy projects in different countries part of the “new green scam”, and the carbon footprint – “nonsense”.

Trump also warned countries investing in such initiatives that "they will fail.".