![]() ![]() Income disparities vary across energy uses, with personal transport being the most unequal As such, in some regions, the top decile’s emissions from aviation are higher than the bottom decile’s entire footprint. Given the space requirements of plane seats, passengers in premium classes consume three times more oil than passengers in economy class. Around 90% of the global population flies only once a year or not at all, whereas around 6% fly more than twice a year and just 1% fly more than five times a year. Within transport, aviation-related emissions are especially unequal. Meanwhile, energy related to personal transport sees particularly high disparities across major economies. Household heat and electricity consumption, a portion of which is an essential energy service for all individuals, is more uniform across income groups. Individual emissions can broadly be broken down into household consumption (all electricity and fuel use within the residence), personal transport (passenger and non-freight use of road, rail, aviation and shipping), and emissions embodied in the goods and services consumed. The bottom 10% of emitters globally live in developing economies in Africa and Asia, where they consume relatively small amounts of goods and services, and in many cases lack access to electricity and clean cooking. The rest are from the Middle East, Russia, and South Africa, in countries with relatively high income and wealth inequality and emissions-intensive fuel mixes. Around 85% of them live in advanced economies – including Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, United States, and United Kingdom – and also in China. The top 10% of emitters span all continents. By comparison, around 0.6% of the world – an estimated 46.8 million individuals – are considered millionaires or billionaires. There are 782 million people in the top 10% of emitters, extending well beyond traditional ideas of the super rich. The top 10% averaged 22 tonnes of CO 2 per capita in 2021, over 200 times more than the average for the bottom 10%. Globally, the top 10% of emitters were responsible for almost half of global energy-related CO 2 emissions in 2021, compared with a mere 0.2% for the bottom 10%. These large contrasts reflect great differences in income and wealth, and in lifestyles and consumption patterns.ĬO2 emissions are highly unequal across income groups and regions Meanwhile, the global average energy-related carbon footprint is around 4.7 tonnes of CO 2 per person – the equivalent of taking two round-trip flights between Singapore and New York, or of driving an average SUV for 18 months. The top 1% of emitters globally each had carbon footprints of over 50 tonnes of CO 2 in 2021, more than 1 000 times greater than those of the bottom 1% of emitters. Yet variations across income groups are even more significant. In 2021, the average North American emitted 11 times more energy-related CO 2 than the average African. Emissions are adjusted for trade to reflect the upstream effects of individuals’ consumption patterns. The analysis quantifies the emissions footprints of individuals by income, focusing on energy-related CO 2 emissions. ![]() This commentary is part of the IEA’s ongoing work to explore people-centred energy transitions, including analysis on universal energy access and just transitions for energy sector workers. Emissions vary across countries and across generations, but even more so across income groups. Carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions are no exception. Wealth, energy use, and the consumption of goods and services are unevenly distributed across the world. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |