Every 20 minutes, Canada’s private jets emit more carbon pollution than the average Canadian does in a year

New Oxfam report lands days before the November 5 federal budget, a year after Ottawa ended the luxury tax on private planes.

• In 2025, 71,239 private jet flights left Canada, emitting more than 333,000 tonnes of CO2.
• In 11 minutes, those jets emitted more CO2 than someone in the poorest half of Canada’s population emits in a year.
• Last year’s federal budget ended the luxury tax on private planes and boats.
• The richest 0.1 percent of Canadians, about 39,000 people, emit 50 times more CO2 per person than someone in the poorest half of the population, and 27 times more than the average Canadian.
• Globally, the richest 0.1 percent produce more carbon pollution than the poorest 3.5 billion people combined.
• Oxfam Canada is calling on Ottawa to use the November 5 budget to tax private jets, extreme wealth and fossil fuel profits.

October 27, 2026 (Ottawa) — Private jets that took off from Canada last year emitted more than 333,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to new Oxfam analysis released today. Every 20 minutes, those flights put out more CO2 than the average Canadian emits in a full year.

The Canadian findings are part of Disaster Divide, Oxfam’s new global report on how climate disasters deepen inequality and enrich the few. The report is published ahead of the UN climate summit (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, which runs November 9 to 20. In Canada, it lands days before the November 5 federal budget, and a year after Ottawa ended the luxury tax on private planes and boats. The government had projected that part of the tax would bring in about $31 million a year.

“A year ago, Ottawa decided private jets no longer needed a luxury tax. Since then, Canadians have lived through another season of wildfires and floods, and they are paying for it through higher insurance premiums and their taxes. The people flying private produce a large share of this pollution. They should help pay for the damage, and the November 5 budget is the place to start,” said Nirvana Mujtaba, Women’s Rights Policy and Advocacy Specialist, Oxfam Canada.

Pollution at the top, costs for everyone else

Canada’s richest 0.1 percent emit an average of 351 tonnes of CO2 per person each year. Someone in that group emits more CO2 in just over nine months than someone in the poorest half of Canadians has emitted over the last 30 years.

The costs land on everyone else. This year, more than 5,400 wildfires burned about 4.5 million hectares across Canada and forced more than 33,750 people from their homes, including more than 8,800 from First Nations communities. More than 200 deaths were attributed to extreme heat events in Montreal and Toronto between 2000 and 2020. The 2021 heat dome in British Columbia resulted in 619 heat-related deaths. In Ottawa, record rain on Canada Day flooded about 4,500 homes. Statistics Canada reports that insured catastrophic weather claims reached a record $8.6 billion in 2024, and that home and mortgage insurance premiums rose 45 percent between December 2019 and December 2025.

The report shows how the super-rich buy their way out of danger through private insurance, private firefighting crews and homes in safer, cooler places. For everyone else, climate disasters mean destroyed homes, depleted savings and lost livelihoods, leaving people more exposed when the next disaster hits.

A global pattern

Globally, the richest 0.1 percent (8 million people) produce more carbon pollution than the world’s poorest 3.5 billion people combined. Combined, private jets worldwide emit more carbon pollution in two seconds than someone in the poorest half of humanity emits in a year. Combining carbon inequality data with climate attribution models, Oxfam has found that:

• The richest 1 percent are responsible for 20 percent of global warming since 1990, 100 times more per person than someone in the poorest half of humanity.
• Just one year of emissions by the richest 1 percent will cause 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths. 78 percent of these deaths will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries, which are responsible for 8 percent of global emissions.
• The richest 1 percent’s emissions will cause nearly US$53 trillion in damage by 2050.

Oxfam’s new Destroy & Rebuild Index identifies 217 corporations profiting both from industries that fuel climate breakdown and from disaster preparedness, recovery and reconstruction. BlackRock and Vanguard are invested in 92 percent of the corporations in the index, with combined investments of more than US$1 trillion.

“The ultra-rich are setting the planet on fire and then charging the rest of us for the extinguishers,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar. “They profit from the pollution. They profit from the disaster. And they profit again from the clean-up.”

What Oxfam is calling for

In the November 5 budget and at COP31, Oxfam Canada is calling on the federal government to:

• Make rich polluters pay, including through permanent wealth and income taxes, a permanent tax on fossil fuel corporations, and punitive taxes on high-emitting luxury items like private jets.
• End profiteering from climate disasters through permanent windfall profit taxes, profit ceilings and price caps in emergency response, reconstruction and food systems.
• Spell out how Canada’s renewed climate finance commitment will be spent: prioritize grants over loans that deepen debt, triple adaptation funding by 2035, and allocate 40 percent to mitigation, 40 percent to adaptation and 20 percent to loss and damage, with a focus on Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries.
• Reduce inequality within and between countries, including through climate-resilient public infrastructure and public services.

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Notes to editors

Download Oxfam’s report and methodology note: 

• Canadian figures are Oxfam’s analysis of Stockholm Environment Institute data (emissions inequality, 2022) and of the Private Jet Emissions Tracker built by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Private Jet Accountability Project (flights departing Canada, January 1 to December 31, 2025). The average Canadian emits 12.9 tonnes of CO2 a year; someone in the poorest half emits 7.0 tonnes.
• Budget 2025 ended the luxury tax on aircraft and vessels; the tax on vehicles remains. Projected revenue from the aircraft and vessel portion averaged $31 million a year over four years (The Canadian Press, June 19, 2026).
• Insurance figures: Statistics Canada, Extreme weather impacts on consumers and insurers in Canada, December 2019 to December 2025 (June 16, 2026). Wildfire figures: Insurance Business, August 28, 2026. Ottawa flooding: CTV News Ottawa, July 7, 2026.
• Oxfam’s analysis finds that 1.18 million or 78 percent of excess deaths due to heat will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
• Since 1990, carbon emissions from the richest 1 percent have caused global economic output to drop by US$2.9 trillion. By 2050, this will rise to US$52.6 trillion, equivalent to a 0.5 percent loss of global cumulative GDP over that period. The countries least responsible for climate change will bear the heaviest economic toll.
• According to the International Organization for Migration, the climate crisis could displace as many as 1 billion people by 2050. The frequency and intensity of these events are rising as a direct result of climate change.

Media Contact

Diana Sarosi: diana.sarosi@oxfam.org/ +1 (613)-240-4157