10% of world’s richest responsible for half of global carbon emissions.
By Sreejith Vallikunnu
A new report by Oxfam International revealed that the world’s richest 10 percent are responsible for nearly half of all global carbon emissions.
According to the report entitled ‘extreme carbon inequality’, the poorest half of the world, approximately 3.5 billion people contributes only 10 percent of carbon emissions.
“Climate change and economic inequality are inextricably linked and together pose one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century,” said Tim Gore, Oxfam’s head of food and climate policy.
“Paris must be the start of building a more human economy for all – not just for the ‘haves,’ the richest and highest emitters, but also the ‘have-nots,’ the poorest people who are the least responsible for and most vulnerable to climate change,” he added.
“Extreme carbon inequality has to be capped. Any deal must keep alive the possibility of holding global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, and provide a major boost in funding to help the poorest and most vulnerable communities adapt to climate change,” Gore continued.
The report is endorsed by Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty, co-authors of Carbon and Inequality from Kyoto to Paris, of the Paris School of Economics, and Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice.
Here are the four important findings from the report;
- Someone in the richest one percent of the world’s population uses 175 times more carbon on average than someone from the bottom 10 percent.
- Someone in the richest 10 percent of citizens in India uses on average just one-quarter of the carbon of someone in the poorest half of the population of the United States.
- The emissions of someone in the poorest half of the Indian population are on average just one-twentieth those of someone in the poorest half of the US population.
- The total emissions of the poorest half of the population of China, around 600 million people, are only one-third of the total emissions of the richest 10 percent in the US, some 30 million people.