A recent report published by Oxfam showed that the richest 1% of the world’s population emits greenhouse gases equivalent to two-thirds of the world’s poorest people, or about five billion people.
Max Lawson, co-author of the report published on Sunday by the anti-poverty NGO, said that if the fight against climate change is a common challenge, some have more responsibility than others and government policies should be adapted accordingly.
“The richer you are, the easier it will be for you to reduce your emissions and those associated with your investments … You don’t need a third car, a fourth vacation, or investment in the cement industry,”he said.
The report, entitled “Climate equality: a planet for the 99%”, is based on research conducted by the Stockholm Environment Institute, and analyzes emissions associated with private consumption of people of different income groups until 2019.
Among the main findings, the report concluded that the richest 1% of the world’s population, or 77 million people, are responsible for 16% of global emissions associated with their consumption. This is the same percentage of emissions from 66% of the world’s poorest people, or 5.11 billion people.
For example, in France, within 10 years, the richest 1% of the country’s population emitted as much carbon emissions in one year as the poorest 50% of the population.
“We believe that unless governments adopt a progressive climate policy, in which the people who emit the most are asked to make the biggest sacrifices, we will never get good policies in this area,”Lawson said.
This may include a tax on those who make more than 10 flights a year, or a tax on non-environmental investments that is much higher than the tax on environmentally friendly investments.
