The Carbon Inequality Era

This research paper analyzes the link between income inequality and carbon emissions across 117 countries from 1990 to 2015, noting a 60% increase in annual global emissions during this period and exploring future scenarios for the equitable distribution of the remaining carbon budget.

• Between 1990 and 2015, annual global carbon emissions increased by 60%, which resulted in the doubling of total global cumulative emissions. This increase has placed the world near the threshold of 2°C of warming and on the edge of exceeding 1.5°C.
• The research presents future scenarios of carbon inequality based on various trajectories of carbon emissions and economic growth, emphasizing the difficulty of achieving an equitable distribution of the remaining global carbon budget.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2020). The Carbon Inequality Era. https://www.sei.org/publications/the-carbon-inequality-era

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. The Carbon Inequality Era. 2020. https://www.sei.org/publications/the-carbon-inequality-era.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=The Carbon Inequality Era |date=21 September 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/the-carbon-inequality-era |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2020carbon, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{The Carbon Inequality Era}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/the-carbon-inequality-era}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }