Study: Top 10% of Consumers Cost Earth $5.7 Trillion in Annual Damage
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.
27 Articles
27 Articles
Global warming, species extinction, freshwater consumption: The richest people contribute significantly disproportionately to the destruction of the environment, as a new study shows.
The top ten percent heat up the earth, a new study shows. A tax could help - in several ways
The top 10 percent of people in the world cause an average of $2,300-7,500 (700,000-2.3 million forints) of environmental damage per person per year.
The richest 10 percent of the world's consumers bear a ‘disproportionately large responsibility’ for environmental damage, researchers from Leiden University write. The annual damage exceeds the funding gap for climate and biodiversity projects. The researchers present this as an economic argument in support of ‘polluter pays’ policies.
Every year, the richest ten percent do enormous environmental damage. They have to be put more into the obligation, scientists demand.
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