This text is taken from the Courrier de l’économie of 20 June. Click here to subscribe.
As we know, rich countries are responsible for a greater share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. What we learn from the sixth update of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published at the beginning of June (PDF), is that within the rich countries themselves, it is also the wealthier households who are responsible for a disproportionate portion of GHG emissions generated by the population.
The IPCC calculates that households with an average annual income in the top 10% of their country (which equates to an annual income of $102,000 or more in the case of Canadian households) cause around 40% of GHG emissions produced by all households, all incomes combined.
By way of comparison, at the other end of the spectrum, half of the less fortunate households (in Canada, these are those with an average annual income of $17,800) are responsible for less than 15% of the GHG emissions produced by household consumption.
The IPCC goes a little further by indicating that the three activities of households living in rich countries that are the most polluting are transport, food and housing. These three sectors alone account for approximately 60% of the total GHG emissions produced by these households.
To improve the fight against climate change, the IPCC therefore suggests that governments target these three niches, which will sound like an old broken record for many: wealthier households are more likely to buy larger vehicles to get around, to eat more meat and live in larger homes that require more energy for heating or cooling.
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