Latest news with #CarlFriedrichSchleussner
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Just Found Who's Causing Global Warming
Are you sitting down? Because there's some news that might shock you. A recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change has found that the richest 10 percent of the world population are responsible for an astonishing two-thirds of observable climate warming since 1990. Basically, that small minority of the wealthiest among us contribute nearly seven times as much to extreme climate change as the entire lower-earning 90 percent of the planet. If that's not enough to have you reaching for your pitchfork, the top 1 percent contribute 20 times as much to climate disasters as the bottom 99 percent. Since 2019, the research article notes, the "wealthiest 10 percent of the global population accounted for nearly half of global emissions" through "private consumption and investments, whereas the poorest 50 percent accounted for only one-tenth of global emissions." The results were developed by fusing climate change models with economic data, which allowed researchers to zero in on rates of toxic emissions from various income groups throughout the globe. By linking climate change with the economy, they found the source of these emissions overwhelmingly skewed toward the top hoarders of wealth. "If everyone had emitted like the bottom 50 percent of the global population, the world would have seen minimal additional warming since 1990," co-author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner said. "Addressing this imbalance is crucial for fair and effective climate action." While the numbers are staggering, they're far from shocking at this point. In the United States, the top 1 percent of households control 80 percent of company assets — the average person reading this has no way of ending the coal industry's devastating reign over Appalachia, for example. That's a decision to be made by shareholders and executives looming over us from the top of the pyramid. Rather, the article is just more confirmation of something we've known for years: the rich are the biggest threat to the climate by far. But while most studies on wealth and climate change hone in on consumption habits, this bit of research looks a little deeper under the hood at the system making this all possible. Instead of simply arguing that rich people consume more than the average pauper — a verifiable fact, to be clear — these researchers studied emissions through the flow of public and private investments, as well as global trade. This gives a much more complete picture of the actual cause and effect of Earth-melting pollution, following the key source of power in our capitalist world: property. The poorest among us, owning no factories, private jets, or oil rigs, are hardly a glimmer in the rearview mirror of the ultrarich as they race toward emission rates previously unseen by humankind. Climate change, being clearly tied to economic activity, is simply one of dozens of consequences of our chosen economic system — and as the old adage goes, "it all rolls downhill." "To mainstream commerce, the Earth is both loot and dump," wrote climate journalist George Monbiot. "Commercial activity, broadly speaking, consists of extracting resources from a hole in the ground on one side of the planet, inducing people to buy them, then dumping them a few days later in a hole in the ground on the other side." Look no further for evidence of this than the ultrarich themselves. Measuring their wealth in increasingly fractured portfolios and webs of corporate spending, those who do own the factories hide their role in the changing climate through tall tales of consumer responsibility: recycle your plastics, buy an electric car, and use paper straws. Yet as the research clearly shows, none of these measures has a hope of making a dent in the grand scheme of climate emissions. Which isn't to say we shouldn't try — but that until the ultrawealthy are brought to heel, we have about as much chance of stopping climate change as BP has of stopping its next oil spill. That is, not very much at all. More on billionaires: Bill Gates Gives Up on Climate Change
Al Jazeera
07-05-2025
- Science
- Al Jazeera
Two-thirds of global warming caused by world's richest 10%, study finds
The wealthiest 10 percent of the world's people are responsible for two-thirds of the global warming since 1990, according to researchers. The way in which the rich consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of heatwaves and droughts, wrote the researchers of a study published on Wednesday in the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Climate Change. This is the first study to quantify the impact of concentrated private wealth on extreme climate events. 'We link the carbon footprints of the wealthiest individuals directly to real-world climate impacts,' lead author Sarah Schoengart, a scientist at the public university of ETH Zurich, told the AFP news agency. 'It's a shift from carbon accounting toward climate accountability.' Compared with the global average, for example, the richest 1 percent contributed 26 times more to once-a-century heatwaves and 17 times more to droughts in the Amazon, according to the study. Emissions from the wealthiest 10 percent in China and the United States – which together account for nearly half of global carbon pollution – each led to a two- to threefold rise in heat extremes. Advertisement 'If everyone had emitted like the bottom 50 percent of the global population, the world would have seen minimal additional warming since 1990,' co-author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner said. 'Addressing this imbalance is crucial for fair and effective climate action.' Burning fossil fuels and deforestation have heated Earth's average surface by 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit), mostly during the past 30 years. 'Wealthy emitters play a major role in driving climate extremes' Schoengart and her colleagues combined economic data and climate simulations to trace emissions from different global income groups and assess their impact on specific types of climate-enhanced extreme weather. The researchers also emphasised the role of emissions embedded in financial investment rather than just lifestyle and personal consumption. The impact of this consumption and investment is particularly severe in tropical regions such as the Amazon, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa – all areas of the world that have historically contributed the least to global emissions but have been disproportionately impacted by extreme weather. Sign up for Al Jazeera Breaking News Alert Get real-time breaking news alerts and stay up-to-date with the most important headlines from around the globe. Subscribe Your subscription failed. Please try again. Please check your email to confirm your subscription By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy protected by reCAPTCHA 'Our study shows that extreme climate impacts are not just the result of abstract global emissions. Instead we can directly link them to our lifestyle and investment choices, which in turn are linked to wealth,' Schoengart said. 'We found that wealthy emitters play a major role in driving climate extremes, which provides strong support for climate policies that target the reduction of their emissions.' Advertisement The authors argued that targeting the financial activities and investment portfolios of high-income individuals could lead to significant climate gains. 'Climate action that doesn't address the outsized responsibilities of the wealthiest members of society risk missing one of the most powerful levers we have to reduce future harm,' Schleussner said. Owners of capital, he noted, could be held accountable for climate impacts through progressive taxes on wealth and carbon-intensive investments, thus providing much needed support for adaptation and damage in vulnerable countries. Earlier research has shown that taxing asset-related emissions is more equitable than broad carbon taxes, which tend to burden those with lower incomes. Recent initiatives to increase taxes on the superrich and multinationals have mostly stalled, especially since US President Donald Trump's return to power in January. In 2021, nearly 140 countries agreed to work towards a global corporate tax for multinational companies with nearly half endorsing a minimum rate of 15 percent, but those talks have stalled as well. According to the antipoverty NGO Oxfam, the richest 1 percent have accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade. It says the richest 1 percent have more wealth than the lowest 95 percent combined.
The Independent
07-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
World's richest 10% responsible for two-thirds of global warming since 1990, study finds
The world's wealthiest 10 per cent have caused more than two-thirds of global warming since 1990, according to a major new study that directly links climate disasters to income-based emissions. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that emissions linked to consumption and investments of high-income individuals have been largely responsible for extreme weather events like heatwaves and droughts, especially in vulnerable regions that have contributed the least to the crisis. 'Our study shows that extreme climate impacts are not just the result of abstract global emissions,' Sarah Schöngart, lead author of the study and researcher at ETH Zurich, said. 'Instead, we can directly link them to our lifestyle and investment choices, which in turn are linked to wealth.' Ms Schöngart said her study provided 'strong support for climate policies that target the reduction of their emissions'. Using new modelling techniques, scientists traced emissions from different global income groups and assessed their contributions to specific climate extremes. They found the top 1 per cent of emitters contributed 26 times the global average to increases in deadly heat events and 17 times more to droughts in the Amazon. 'If everyone had emitted like the bottom 50 per cent of the global population, the world would have seen almost no additional warming since 1990,' said Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, head of the climate impacts group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and co-author of the study. The findings add weight to growing calls for stronger taxes on the carbon footprint of the wealthy, especially through their investments. The study emphasised that emissions embedded in financial portfolios – not just personal consumption – have driven global heating. The study comes just days after the World Meteorological Organisation confirmed that global average temperatures were 1.5C higher than pre-industrial times in 2024, and the last 10 years have been the hottest on record. Scientists warn that the world is now dangerously close to breaching the critical 1.5C limit of the Paris Agreement that countries have pledged to avoid. The world has already seen a sharp rise in billion-dollar disasters, with stronger hurricanes in the US, floods in Europe and heatwaves in Asia all becoming more severe than before. Studies estimate that if the world continues on this path, and global heating reaches 4C by the end of the century, the world economy could shrink by 40 per cent, four times more than previous estimates. Before the latest study, a 2020 Oxfam report found the richest 1 per cent were responsible for more than twice the emissions of the poorest 50 per cent between 1990 and 2015. A follow-up report last year estimated that the average billionaire emitted over a million times more carbon than the average person in the bottom 99 per cent. Fifty of the world's richest billionaires produce, on average, more carbon emissions in under three hours than the average British person does in their entire lifetime, the report said. Campaigners have been calling for wealth taxes that target carbon-intensive assets, frequent flyers, private jet owners and high-emitting companies. The authors of the study argued that targeting the financial flows and portfolios of high-income individuals could yield substantial climate benefits. 'This is not an academic discussion – it's about the real impacts of the climate crisis today,' Ms Schleussner said. 'Climate action that doesn't address the outsize responsibilities of the wealthiest members of society, risks missing one of the most powerful levers we have to reduce future harm.' Researchers said making rich individual polluters pay could also help provide much-needed support for adaptation and loss in vulnerable countries.
