Use paper straws, bike to work, eat locally produced foods: everyday consumers are increasingly reminded of ways to reduce their so-called carbon footprint.
However, the environmental impact of emissions from the poor is “vastly” exaggerated, while the impact of the wealthy is underestimated, according to a team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge.
Based on a survey of more than 4,000 people in Denmark, India, Nigeria and the United States, the team found that a “vast majority” of people “grossly underestimate” the carbon footprint of the richest people in society while “significantly” overestimating the carbon footprint of the poorest people.
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, was based on questions asked of equal numbers of rich and poor people in the four regions, chosen because of their “differences in per capita carbon emissions and levels of economic inequality.”
“These countries are very different, but we found that the rich are very similar wherever you go, and their concerns are different from the rest of society,” said Ramit Debnath of the University of Cambridge.
The wealthy were more likely to justify a deeper carbon footprint and support policies such as “increasing the price of electricity during peak periods, taxing red meat consumption or supporting carbon removal technologies such as carbon capture and storage,” according to the team, which included representatives from the University of Basel, Justus Liebig Giesen University, Murdoch University and the University of Oxford.
“There is a huge contrast between billionaires flying privately while the rest of us drink from wet paper straws: one activity has a significant impact on our individual carbon footprint, and the other does not,” Debnath added, warning that climate policies “reflect the interests of the rich.”
“The poor have more pressing concerns, such as how to pay their rent, or support their families,” said Christian Stensen Nielsen of Copenhagen Business School, adding that people “with the highest carbon footprints” have “the greatest responsibility.”
