Written by Lily Liang
We all contribute to climate change, but not to the same extent. Between 1990 and 2015, the world’s richest 10% were responsible for more than half of the carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere and used up one third of the world’s remaining 1.5C carbon budget (Watts, 2023). Today’s global carbon emission is deeply shaped by the extreme wealth inequality between and within nations, which lead to high carbon inequality and thus, high emissions that are often luxury rather than necessities.
First, wealthy individuals tend to have expensive lifestyles characterized by overconsumption and hyper-mobility. This includes mansions, cars, yachts, and more frequent and luxurious travels. A trip on private jets, for example, emits 10 to 20 times as much carbon pollution as one on a commercial airline (Ivanova, 2023). Elon musk was estimated to fly around the earth 12.4 times with his private planes in 2022, despite owning Tesla that prized its contributions to sustainability and green energy (Patino et al., 2023).
Yet, consumption footprint is only the tip of the iceberg of the emission by the top polluters. Investment choices by many of the super-rich are highly polluting too: For the richest 1%, investments can account for between 50% and 70% of their emissions. Specifically, the uberwealthy’s investments in fossil fuels and other polluting companies reinforces society’s reliance on fossil fuels and slows the transition to a more sustainable economy. In an Oxfam study of 125 of the world’s billionaires, researchers found that only one of the billionaires had invested in renewable energy, while the share of investments in polluting industries such as fossil fuels was double that of the Standard & Poor 500 group of companies (Dabi et al., 2023). Economic elites, with higher power to influence policies-making, can facilitate influences of lawmaking in ways that contribute to increased production and externalization of emissions. The polluting investment choices were not limited to the billionaires but the political elites. In the U.S., one in four members of congress reportedly own stocks in fossil fuels companies, providing further incentives for policies that promote the development of polluting industries and corporations (Kotch, 2020).
Clearly, extreme wealth inequality is directly associated with carbon inequality, which contributes to the unsustainable level of carbon emission today. This implies that policies to reduce wealth inequality can reduce carbon emission and contribute to climate change mitigation. In fact, according to a report by Oxfam, a 60% tax on the incomes of the wealthiest 1% would cut emissions by 695 million tons, which is more than the 2019 footprint of the UK (Khalfan et al, 2023). Similar measures, such as making carbon taxes more progressive by increasing the tax rate on individuals with high footprints, can also reduce carbon inequality and change consumption choices of the elites. However, such radically progressive policies can encounter immense resistance from the economic and political elites, who use their power to protect their wealth and guard the economic status quo. Thus, measures to reduce the power imbalance in politics (e.g., lobbying restrictions) due to wealth inequality are also fundamental to successful redistributive policies and climate policies.
Just as people don’t contribute to climate change equally, they don’t bear the costs equally either. While wealthy individuals and nations collectively contribute more to carbon emissions and global warming, they are also likely to be the least affected: countries and communities with lower income and wealth are more vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Studies found that less developed countries in Africa and Latin America are more exposed to temperature variability due to climate change. Also, less wealthy, rural communities and individuals are found to be more likely to live in vulnerable regions, such as lower-elevation coastal zones and deltas. Even in urban regions, disadvantaged groups are also disproportionately located in low-lying regions susceptible to flooding. Similarly, the indirect effect of climate change, such as food insecurity and spread of disease vectors, have larger impacts on underserved communities with less advanced public services and infrastructure (Chancel et al, 2023).
Thus, the story of inequality and climate change is a story about vicious cycles: inequality contributes to climate change, and climate change fuels inequality. What’s worse, those least responsible for climate change bear the most cost. In theory, redistributing wealth and political power, we can reduce inequality and mitigate climate change simultaneously. At the same time, such solutions are often more complex in their implementations as we need to bring the climate issue and the energy systems back under democratic control.
References
Chancel, L., Bothe, P., & Voituriez, T. (2023). CLIMATE INEQUALITY REPORT 2023, FAIR TAXES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH. World Inequality Database.
Dabi, N., Maitland, A., Lawson, M., Stroot, H., Poidatz, A., & Khalfan, A. (2022). Carbon Billionaires: The Investment Emissions of the World’s Richest People. https://doi.org/10.21201/2022.9684
Ivanova, I. (2023, May 2). Private flights have boomed since the pandemic. are taxpayers picking up the Tab?. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-private-jets-carbon-emissions-tax/
Khalfan, A., Nilsson Lewis, A., Aguilar, C., Persson, J., Lawson, M., Dabi, N., Jayoussi, S., & Acharya, S. (2023). Climate equality: A planet for the 99%. Oxfam International. https://doi.org/10.21201/2023.000001
Kotch, A. (2020, January 10). Members of Congress own up to $93 million in fossil fuel stocks. The American Prospect. https://prospect.org/power/members-of-congress-own-up-to-93-million-in-fossil-fuel-stocks/
Patino, M., Nicoletti, L., & Alexander, S. (2023, March 2). Elon Musk is so busy his private jet is taking 13-minute flights. Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-elon-musk-private-jet/
Watts, J. (2023, November 20). Richest 1% account for more carbon emissions than poorest 66%, report says. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/richest-1-account-for-more-carbon-emissions-than-poorest-66-report-says