“Inequality Emergency”The wealth of the G20 billionaires is growing rapidly
The super rich are getting richer: Oxfam calculates that billions of people could escape poverty just by increasing their wealth in the last year.
Billionaire wealth in G20 countries increased by $2.2 trillion last year. This is the result of analysis carried out by development organization Oxfam at the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa. Therefore, the super rich were able to increase their wealth by 16.5 percent from $13.4 trillion to $15.6 trillion in one year. The organization calculates that this amount alone would be enough to lift 3.8 billion people out of poverty. It will take 1.65 trillion dollars for this. Oxfam refers to the poverty line of $8.30 per day set by the World Bank.
Ahead of the G20 summit of industrialized and developing countries, which took place in Johannesburg at the weekend, Oxfam called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other heads of state and government to create an international body to fight inequality. The organization also stressed that taxation of the super-rich should be encouraged and cuts to development cooperation should be reversed.
Addressing inequalities is the main theme of this summit. South Africa’s G20 Presidency has carried out the first analysis on this matter. A special committee of independent experts led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz spoke of an “inequality emergency.” To address this, the committee recommended the creation of a new international body that should play a similar role to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the climate crisis.
Concerns about reduced development budgets
“Globally, rising inequality is causing serious harm to humanity,” said Tobias Hauschild, head of social justice at Oxfam Germany. Merz and other G20 leaders must speak out clearly in support of creating such a body to combat inequality. In addition, the global taxation initiative on the super-rich launched at the G20 Summit in Brazil must be implemented. Hauschild complained that more and more governments should not ignore their international responsibilities by reducing development cooperation. “With development cuts in the 2026 federal budget, the federal government is also sending a fatal signal to the world’s poorest countries.”
Despite cancellations by the US and Chinese presidents, Chancellor Merz took part in the summit in South Africa. “The G20 remains an important multilateral format for Germany to coordinate with developed and developing countries,” the federal government said recently.
