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Changing the lifestyles of the UK’s wealthiest people, the so-called ‘polluter elite’, could hold the key to the country’s net zero journey.
Following a review of existing evidence, a new report by the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change suggests the wealthiest citizens must make the most dramatic changes to their behaviours to keep the 1.5°C target in sight.
The authors of the report estimated that the richest 1% of the global population needs to reduce their emissions by a factor of at least 30 by 2030.
The report highlights that nearly half of the increase in absolute global carbon dioxide emissions was created by the richest 10%, with the wealthiest 5% alone contributing more than a third of emissions.
14 Apr 2021
Suspended Labour MP Claudia Webbe said that the “rich must be abolished” in order to confront overpopulation and the so-called “climate crisis”.
Taking to social media on Tuesday evening, Webbe wrote that the “Earth is overpopulated; there are too many rich people,” adding: “To solve the climate crisis; the rich must be abolished”.
Earth is overpopulated; there are too many rich people
To solve the climate crisis; the rich must be abolished
Her comments came in response to a report from the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change, which claimed that the wealthiest 5 per cent of the global population were responsible for 37 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions growth between the years 1990 and 2015, more than double that of the bottom 50 per cent of the world’s population.
He warned: âThe beneficiaries of the status quo are in no rush to change. If we are serious about the Paris agreement, we have to disrupt that cosy relationship between business and government.â
Recent scandals such as David Cameronâs lobbying on behalf of the finance company Greensill had shone a light on the governmentâs links to business, he said. âBut the problem goes much deeper, such as directorships [of companies, taken by politicians], the revolving doors for ministers, and the internships by which energy companies send their employees to work inside the civil service on policy,â he said.