Do carbon emissions tend to grow in step with affluence?
The lifestyles of high-income populations are responsible for the vast majority of the world's carbon emissions. “Burgeoning consumption has diminished or cancelled out any gains brought about by technological change aimed at reducing environmental impact,” a team of scientists wrote in Nature in June 2020.
A 2015 Oxfam study found that the poorest 50% of the world emits 10% of the world's carbon, while the wealthiest 10% emits 50%. The richest 1% of the world, on average, have lifestyles with carbon-emission rates up to 175 times greater than the poorest 10% of the global population.
A connection between poverty and environmental degradation is a myth, U.K. environmental researcher David Satterthwaite asserts. “The urban poor contribute very little to environmental degradation because they use so few resources and generate so few wastes.”
