Six figures to understand carbon inequality from the World Inequality Report 2022.
THREAD/
1/ Close to half of all emissions are due to one tenth of the global population, and just one hundredth of the world population (77 million individuals) emits about 50% more than the entire bottom half of the population (3.8 billion individuals).
2/ The bottom half of the global population contributed only 16% of the growth in emissions observed since 1990, while the top 1% (77 million individuals) was responsible for 21% of emissions growth.
3/ In the 1990, carbon inequality was a matter of inequality between countries. Today, carbon inequality is rather one of classes, that is inequality within countries.
4/ This graph shows where emitters are.
5/ Cutting emissions is not an everybody-is-in-the-same-boat mission. In France, for example, the bottom 50% poorest must only reduce their emissions by 3%, while that cut averages 61% for the top 10% richest individuals.
6/ Degrowth for the rich, green growth for the poor.
END THREAD/
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Is decoupling likely to happen? To find out, here is a thread summary of my third and final lecture for The Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature.
(Spoiler alert: the answer is no).
THREAD/
1/ The first limit to greening growth has to do with declining rates of Energy Returns on Energy Invested (EROI), meaning that it takes more and more energy to obtain energy.
2/ And for the economists out there who will argue that the energy sector is not that important because it’s only a small part of GDP, read this paper.
Here is a summary of my second lecture for The Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature on the topic of green growth. Question of the day: Is decoupling happening?
THREAD
The best way to answer this question is to read the systematic review of the literature conducted by Helmut Haberl and fifteen colleagues in 2020.
The first finding of that review is that most studies focus on greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, leaving out all other environmental pressures. Also: only 8% of all decoupling studies use consumption-based indicators.