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Wednesday, April 14th, 2021

Over 25 Years, World’s Wealthiest 5% Behind Over One-Third of Global Emissions Growth: Study

Author:     Brett Wilkins
Source:     Common Dreams
Publication Date:     April 13, 2021
 Link: Over 25 Years, World’s Wealthiest 5% Behind Over One-Third of Global Emissions Growth: Study
Stephan:   Here is an aspect of America's wealth inequality crisis -- yes, it is a major crisis, see SR archives -- that I had not considered or seen asserted based on data. But now we have that data, and I take it as yet another reason why U.S. wealth inequality needs to be addressed through the restructuring of our tax code.
A woman enjoys her choice of Krug or Dom Perignon champagne while relaxing in the first class cabin on a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 flight. Credit: s.yume/Flickr

As world leaders prepare for this November’s United Nations Climate Conference in Scotland, a new report from the Cambridge Sustainability Commission reveals that the world’s wealthiest 5% were responsible for well over a third of all global emissions growth between 1990 and 2015. 

“Rich people who fly a lot may think they can offset their emissions by tree-planting schemes or projects to capture carbon from the air. But these schemes are highly contentious and they’re not proven over time.”
—Peter Newell, 
Sussex University

The report (pdf), entitled Changing Our Ways: Behavior Change and the Climate Crisis, found that nearly half the growth in absolute global emissions were cause by the world’s richest 10%, with the most affluent 5% alone contributing 37%.

“In the year when the U.K. hosts COP26, and while the government continues to reward some of Britain’s biggest polluters through tax credits, the commission report shows why this is precisely the wrong way to meet the U.K.’s climate […]

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