World's Highest-Consuming 10% Cause up to $5.7 Trillion a Year in Environmental Damage, Study Finds
Researchers estimate biodiversity loss and climate change make up most of the global 10%’s $1.7 trillion to $5.7 trillion annual damage bill.
- On Thursday, a study published in Communications Sustainability estimated the world's top 10% of consumers cause up to $5.7 trillion in annual environmental damage, surpassing international climate and biodiversity financing gaps.
- Researchers from Leiden University and the University of Oxford calculated this damage bill using 2017 consumption data and planetary boundaries to quantify environmental harm across climate, biodiversity, and nutrient cycles.
- The top 10% of American consumers face annual bills ranging from $19k to $63k per person, while India's top 10% face significantly lower costs between $410 and $1.4k, reflecting consumption inequality.
- Environmental taxes targeting this group could help cover climate and biodiversity financing gaps, potentially addressing shortfalls in the Loss and Damages Fund already strapped for cash.
- Oxford professor Paul Behrens of the Oxford Martin School argued the top 10% hold outsized leverage as investors and employers, noting their power to cut emissions exceeds their share of them.
12 Articles
12 Articles
The World's Top Consumers Cause Up to $5.7 Trillion in Environmental Damage Every Year
Crowds walk along 5th Avenue just south of Trump Tower on February 8, 2017 in New York City. —Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis—Getty ImagesIt’s nearly impossible to ignore the toll that our consumerist lives take on the planet: from the waste generated from single-use plastics to the pollution from our daily commutes. But now, a new study reveals the disproportionate environmental impact caused by the world’s biggest consumers. A new study published t…
The most privileged people on the planet have a "significant" weight on the destruction of nature, shows a scientific study published on Thursday, having estimated several thousand billions of dollars a year.
World's highest-consuming 10% cause up to $5.7 trillion a year in environmental damage, study finds
The environmental damage caused by the world's highest-consuming 10% of people is worth $1.7 trillion to $5.7 trillion a year. At the central and upper estimates, this is several times more than the international community has committed to spend on climate action and biodiversity conservation combined, and is on the scale of the funding estimated to be needed globally to address these crises.
At the heart of the European Union’s environmental policies is the “polluter pays” principle, says the text that articulates them. According to this principle, more costs should be borne by those who cause the most environmental degradation, who are the ones who consume the most and who also belong to the highest incomes. Now, a study figures the economic cost of the environmental impact of the top 10% of the world’s consumers between, at least,…
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