Figures that show just how much France's billionaires are heating the planet

TheThe figures are stunning. The financial assets owned by France's elite club of billionaires emit the equivalent of 152 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. That is more than the total emissions of Denmark, Finland and Sweden combined. And it is equivalent to the CO2 emissions produced by the financial assets owned by a half of French households.

In a report published on Wednesday February 23rd, environmental campaigners Greenpeace and Oxfam France have calculated the carbon footprint of France's 63 billionaires. The two organisations have focussed on a hitherto neglected aspect of greenhouse gas emissions: those produced by the financial assets of the mega-rich. To carry out their calculations the groups looked at the company in which each of these billionaires hold the majority of shares.

In the past the emissions of the mega-rich were assessed solely on the basis of their individual lifestyles and consumer choices. For example, in October 2021 a scientific study on around 20 billionaires around the world showed that France's Bernard Arnault, the boss of the luxury goods group LVMH, had emitted the equivalent of 10,421 tonnes of CO2 in 2018, while the carbon footprint of an average French person's lifestyle is equivalent to around eight tonnes. But as Greenpeace and Oxfam France note, the main source of the billionaires' wealth comes from their share portfolios. “On top of their lifestyle it's their financial assets, through their shares in high-emitting companies, which is the most important item in the carbon footprint of France's billionaires,” they write.

A climate-damaging industrial revival that helps the wealthiest

The French billionaires have control over a major part of France's domestic production, which still produces a large amount of greenhouse gases. The level of emissions produced by companies listed on France's stock exchange, the CAC 40, is in fact leading us head-on towards global warming of 3.5°C by the end of the century. And four of the most heavily-emitting French companies – banks BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and oil firm Total - each produce more CO2 than the whole of France.

Moreover, the two non-governmental organisations behind the report point out that the French billionaires are the “big winners” of the policies adopted by Emmanuel Macron to revive industry since the start of the Covid pandemic. In April 2020 the French state pumped 20 billion euros into major French companies. In June of the same year the car industry and the aeronautical sector received 8 billion euros and 15 billion euros respectively.

Finally, the economic recovery plan launched in September 2020 gave 100 billion euros to companies without any strings in terms of the objective fixed by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C. According to the official French climate body, the Haut Conseil pour le Climat, two thirds of the public money spent in the September 2020 plan could have a “significant upwards effect on greenhouse gas emissions”.

Thanks, among other things, to these windfalls, some of which was received by groups in which the mega-wealthy are shareholders, the wealth of France's billionaires rose more quickly in a year and a half of the pandemic than during the ten previous years. Since the start of the Covid crisis the five richest people in France have doubled their wealth, and now between them own as much as the poorest 40% of French society.

“The mega-rich today pose ongoing problems for the community: they run businesses that in general are killing the climate, building their wealth with investments that are harmful for the climate. They also derive from that a lifestyle which is generally damaging to the planet,” said Clément Sénéchal, in charge of climate campaigns at Greenpeace France.

Mulliez, Saadé and Besnier

Among the 60 or so French billionaires who feature in the report, Gérard Mulliez is top of the list. This businessman from Roubaix in northern France and his family founded the supermarket chain Auchan. The carbon footprint of his financial assets alone is three million times greater than that of an average French household.
In second spot is Rodolphe Saadé, who owns three quarters of the freight company CMA-CGM. The enormous greenhouse gas emissions of this billionaire shipowner are due to the fact that maritime transport is a very polluting industry. If this sector were a country it would be the eighth biggest emitter in the European Union.

Finally, third on the list is the very discreet figure of Emmanuel Besnier, chief executive of Lactalis, the leading dairy produce group in the world. The agri-food sector is particularly damaging to the climate. The Climate Action Network in France estimates that in order to reach our climate objectives the world will have reduce the production and consumption of animal products by more than half by 2050.

In total these three French billionaires alone account for more CO2 emissions than nearly a quarter of all French households.

“To guarantee an ecological transition that is fair in social terms, the required change is simple: the burden of ecological transition must be transferred from the poorest consumers, who pollute the least, to the wealthiest producers, who pollute the most and who have the resources to transform these means of production,” said Alexandre Poidatz, who is in charge of climate change advocacy at Oxfam France.

Faced with these disproportionate climate inequalities, both Oxfam France and Greenpeace are calling for the introduction of a climate wealth tax – which could according to their calculations raise at least 6.8 billion euros in 2022 – or a tax on company dividends for those businesses that do not respect the Paris Agreement.

According to France's Economy Ministry, the impact of carbon taxation is proportionally four times greater  on the 20% least well-off households in France currently than on the 20% wealthiest households.

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• The original French version of this article can be found here.

English version by Michael Streeter