A new study, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, reveals that the wealthiest Americans, those whose income places them in the top 10% of earners, are responsible for 40% of the nation's total greenhouse gas emissions. The study, published in PLOS Climate, is the first to link income, especially income derived from financial investments, to the emissions used in generating that income.
The wealthiest 10% of Americans are responsible for 40% of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Credit: Jared Starr
The authors suggest that policymakers adopt taxes focused on shareholders and the carbon intensity of investment incomes in order to equitably meet the goal of keeping the global temperature to 1.5° C of warming. "But, consumption-based approaches to limiting greenhouse gas emissions are regressive. They disproportionately punish the poor while having little impact on the extremely wealthy, who tend to save and invest a large share of their," says Jared Starr, a sustainability scientist at UMass Amherst and the lead author of the new study.
"What happens, when we focus on how emissions create income, rather than how they enable consumption?" Starr asks.
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