WITH the highest-ever temperatures recorded in the Arctic Circle, and with just 3 per cent of the world’s ecosystems remaining intact, we cannot delay in taking action to save our planet and future generations.
Yet sadly it is not true that we are all in this crisis together or that we are all equally culpable when it comes to contributing to environmental breakdown.
The world’s wealthiest 1 per cent produce twice as much carbon emissions as the poorest 50 per cent, according to a report published this week.
According to the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change, the wealthiest citizens, the “polluter elite,” must make the most dramatic changes to their lifestyles to keep the 1.5°C target alive.
First published on Tue 20 Apr 2021 12.43 EDT
The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, must radically overhaul the Treasury’s response to the climate crisis, reforming the department’s longstanding hostility to green spending and resetting its priorities, experts said.
The Treasury is poised to introduce its long-awaited review of the government’s net zero strategy, and its recommendations will help determine whether the UK meets stringent targets on greenhouse gas emissions in the next 15 years.
Boris Johnson has already agreed to accept tougher climate targets – a 78% cut in carbon compared with 1990 levels by 2035 – as advised by the Climate Change Committee in its sixth carbon budget last December.
Contrails from an Air France Airbus A380 jetliner flying high over Las Vegas. | Larry MacDougal via AP
With the highest-ever temperatures recorded in the Arctic Circle, and with just 3% of the world’s ecosystems remaining intact, we cannot delay in taking action to save our planet and future generations. Yet sadly it is not true that we are all in this crisis together or that we are all equally culpable when it comes to contributing to environmental breakdown.
The world’s wealthiest 1% produce twice as much carbon emissions as the poorest 50%, according to a report published this week. According to the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change, the wealthiest citizens, the “polluter elite,” must make the most dramatic changes to their lifestyles to keep the 1.5°C target alive.
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Date: 27 May 2021
The report looked at the worst emissions offenders, dubbed the “polluter elite”. Authors explain that this group of people are extremely rich individuals whose net worth, luxury lifestyle and political influence all rest on wealth that stems from investments in polluting activities – fossil fuels for example. Lead author professor Peter Newell told the
Independent that in most debates on climate change, people either talk about individuals and households and how important it is for them to do the right thing, or they argue it’s about the system, and it has to be about big government action. “All we want to do is link the two and show they are both two sides of the same coin essentially. We need to target what we refer to as the ‘polluter elite’ – a subsection of the population, what you might call the ‘one per cent’.”