'Polluter elite': World's wealthiest contributing to 37 per cent of emissions growth
In a damning report, says Georgia Forrester from Stuff, the authors explain how the combined emissions of the richest one per cent of the global population account for more than the poorest 50 per cent.
According to researchers, evidence shows that during the period of 1990–2015, nearly half of the growth in global emissions was due to the richest 10 per cent of the world, with the wealthiest five per cent alone contributing to more than a third – 37 per cent.
A new report by the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change has looked at this evidence, the climate crisis, and the significant behaviour changes needed to combat it.
A panel of 31 experts from a range of countries were involved in the report, and were tasked with finding effective ways of increasing action to tackle carbon emissions, and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The report looked at the worst emissions offenders, dubbed the “polluter elite”.
Authors explain that this group of people are extremely rich individuals whose net worth, luxury lifestyle and political influence all rest on wealth that stems from investments in polluting activities – fossil fuels for example.
Lead author professor Peter Newell told the Independent that in most debates on climate change, people either talk about individuals and households and how important it is for them to do the right thing, or they argue it’s about the system, and it has to be about big government action.
“All we want to do is link the two and show they are both two sides of the same coin essentially. We need to target what we refer to as the ‘polluter elite’ – a subsection of the population, what you might call the ‘one per cent’.”
“[W]hile it’s true that the climate crisis requires all of us to change our behaviours, some need to change more than others.”
[…]
This elite group will need to reduce its footprint by at least a factor of 30 to stay in line with the Paris Agreement targets, the authors write, while the poorest 50 per cent could actually increase their footprint several times.
Previous research shows that across Europe, the emissions reductions achieved since 1990 have mostly come from lifestyle changes, and the reduced consumption of lower and middle income EU citizens, while the total emissions of the richest 10 per cent actually grew.
According to the report, over the period of 1990 to 2015, the richest 10 per cent of EU citizens were responsible for 27 per cent of the EU’s total cumulative emissions – the same amount of emissions as the poorest half of the EU population combined.
Globally, the wealthiest 10 per cent of the world’s population is responsible for roughly half of all greenhouse gas emissions, while the poorest half is responsible for less than 10 per cent.
[…]
In the report, the researchers argue that: “while it’s true that the climate crisis requires all of us to change our behaviours, some need to change more than others”.
One of the measures given as an example that could be introduced to tackle the carbon footprint of the wealthy include a “frequent flier levy” which would tax those regular airline passengers.
[…]
The report authors argue how government policy, economic incentives and broader cultural change all have a role to play when it comes to significant behaviour change.
This is an excerpt from an article originally written by Georgia Forrester and published by Stuff.
