World’s richest people must cut carbon footprint by 97% to prevent disastrous climate change scenario: report

UN report reveals massive discrepancies between the world’s richest people and the bottom 50 per cent of the global population when it comes to carbon footprints

The richest people in the world are largely responsible for global carbon pollution – and they need to reduce their emissions fast in order to prevent a disastrous climate change scenario, according to a new report.

The United Nations Environmental Programme’s 2020 Emissions Gap report revealed massive discrepancies between the world’s richest people and the bottom 50 per cent of the global population when it comes to global emissions have persisted for decades.

Just 70 million people make up the financial top one percent in the globe, compared to the 3.5 billion people in the bottom 50 per cent, yet they account for a staggering 15 per cent of  global emissions, the United Nations said in its report.

Analysts have indicated connections between wealth and carbon emissions in the past – an issue that could hamper global efforts to slow climate change’s most life-threatening impacts on the world population.

These estimates would allow the world to implement climate change policies and initiatives that reduce global emissions – but it means the richest people would need to cut their carbon footprint by about 97 per cent.

Taryn Fransen, senior fellow with the Global Climate Programme at the World Resources Institute, told CNBC: “Per capita emissions are one more manifestation of the tremendous inequality that's a fact of life in our society that we need to address.”

"People are not driving a car because they want a carbon-intensive lifestyle – people are driving a car because that is the access to transportation that our society provides," she added. "It's the responsibility of policymakers to support alternatives that give people the goods they need without destroying the climate."

Wealthy people would need to make significant reductions to their overall carbon footprints to lower their total impact on climate change, according to the report.

The UN researchers wrote: “The richest 1 per cent would need to reduce their current emissions by at least a factor of 30, while per capita emissions of the poorest 50 per cent could increase by around three times their current levels on average.”

While the report noted a slight reduction in carbon dioxide emissions due to the economic slowdown spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, researchers concluded “the world is still heading for a temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century” – which, as they note, goes beyond the pledges outlined in the global Paris Climate Accord.