THE CARBON INEQUALITY ERA

The report finds that global carbon emissions are starkly unequal, with the richest 10% of the population responsible for nearly half of all emissions in 2015. Between 1990 and 2015, the richest 10% accounted for 46% of the total growth in absolute emissions. The analysis shows a shift where within-country emissions inequality has risen while between-country inequality has fallen. Future projections suggest that even under more equal socio-economic scenarios, the poorest 50% of the population will have very limited access to the remaining global carbon budget, as the wealthiest groups have already depleted a disproportionate share.

• In 2015, the richest 10% of the global population were responsible for 49% of annual global carbon emissions, while the poorest 50% were responsible for only 7%.
• Between 1990 and 2015, the richest 10% of the population were responsible for 46% of the total growth in absolute global carbon emissions, with the richest 5% alone contributing 37%.
• The average per capita consumption emissions of the top 1% in 2015 were more than 100 times higher than those of the poorest half of the world's population.
• While a majority of emissions from the top 1% and 10% global income groups still came from North America and Europe in 2015, there is an increasing share of these emissions located in industrializing countries like China and India.
• Global carbon inequality has shifted over time; between-country inequality has declined as poorer regions grew faster, while within-country emissions inequality has generally risen, exceeding between-country inequality as early as 2008.
• Under a high-inequality future scenario (SSP4) with current emission trajectories (RCP6.0), the richest 1% of the population would account for 55% of the rise in global emissions before they peak, while the bottom 50% would be responsible for only 3%.
• The top 1% of the global population is projected to exceed the 1.5C carbon budget limit before the bottom 50% in both the more equal (SSP1) and more unequal (SSP4) scenarios.

APA

KARTHA, S., KEMP-BENEDICT, E., GHOSH, E., NAZARETH, A., & GORE, T. (2020). THE CARBON INEQUALITY ERA. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/research-report-carbon-inequality-era.pdf

Chicago

KARTHA, SIVAN, ERIC KEMP-BENEDICT, EMILY GHOSH, ANISHA NAZARETH, and TIM GORE. THE CARBON INEQUALITY ERA. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2020. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/research-report-carbon-inequality-era.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{kartha2020carbon, author = {KARTHA, SIVAN and KEMP-BENEDICT, ERIC and GHOSH, EMILY and NAZARETH, ANISHA and GORE, TIM}, title = {{THE CARBON INEQUALITY ERA}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/research-report-carbon-inequality-era.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }