World leaders should aggressively reduce the carbon footprint of the richest to curb the effects of climate change, experts said.
It comes after a UN report found that the richest 1 percent pumped more than twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as the bottom 50 percent.
It is not the first time that wealthy figures have been accused of driving climate change with their lavish lifestyle choices.
Orlando Bloom, Katy Perry and Leonardo DiCpario were among a slew of well-off celebrities criticized last year for attending a Google climate summit in Italy – arriving with private jets and yachts that left an estimated 800 tons of carbon footprint.
Katy Perry (center left) and Orlando Bloom (center right) were among a host of celebrities criticized last year at a Google climate conference in Italy they attended via private jet and yacht (pictured, with their backs to the camera, his Oprah Winfrey and Bradley Cooper)
Perry and Bloom had hitched a ride to the Sicilian conference on the Rising Sun, a huge private yacht owned by music and film producer David Geffen (back photo)
DiCaprio, a UN climate ambassador, has previously been criticized for speaking out on the issue, despite frequently flying private jets, renting a yacht from an oil baron and owning four houses.
Oxfam’s Confronting Carbon Inequality report identified SUVs and frequent flying as two of the biggest drivers of the ‘1 percent’ carbon footprint, with many billionaires known to own private jets.
Like the UN report published this week, it found that the top 1 percent contribute significantly more to climate change than the bottom 50 percent.
Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, is known for driving a $ 65 million Gulfstream jet and in October 2018 was pictured taking an SUV to the airport with then-mistress Lauren Sanchez before hopping aboard the plane .
Billioanire Mark Cuban owns three jets – a Gulfstream that he uses for private transportation and two Boeing corporate jets, one that he rents out as a charter and another that he uses to fly his basketball team around, Business Insider reported.
And despite Elon Musk manufacturing eco-friendly electric cars through Tesla, Elon Musk’s love of private jets has previously made headlines after flying 150,000 miles on a Gulfstream jet in 2018.
Other billionaires who own polluting vehicles include Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov, owners of two of the world’s largest private yachts.
Also criticized for attending the conference was Leonardo DiCaprio, who previously came under fire for his use of private jets (photo disembarking a jet in 2013)
DiCaprio, a UN climate ambassador, has spoken out frequently on the issue in recent years, despite criticizing some of his own lifestyle choices
According to the UN, the richest will have to significantly reduce their carbon footprint to avoid dangerous levels of global warming this century.
The annual study, conducted by the UN Environment Program (UNEP), highlights the gap between the emission levels that need to be in order to keep the temperature low and the current levels in practice.
It was found that the world’s top 10% of earners devour about 45% of all energy used for land transport worldwide and 75% of energy used for aviation.
The poorest 50% of the world’s households consume only 10% and 5% respectively.
To meet the target of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 ° C this century, the 1% carbon footprints will need to be significantly reduced, reducing them to about 2.5 tonnes of CO2 per capita by 2030.
“This elite will have to reduce their footprint by a factor of 30 to stay in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement,” Unep director Inger Anderson wrote in a foreword to the report.
“The rich bear the greatest responsibility in this area,” she added.
Tim Gore, Oxfam’s chief of climate policy and a contributing author of the report, said that while the world’s richest consumed the most, others carried the negative environmental impact.
Other “ 1 percent ” numbers to make frequent use of polluting vehicles include Jeff Bezos (left) who owns a $ 65 million jet, and Roman Abramovich (right) who owns one of the world’s largest yachts.
“The UNEP report shows that the overconsumption of a wealthy minority is fueling the climate crisis, but it is poor communities and young people who are paying the price.”
“It will be practically and politically impossible to close the emissions gap if governments do not reduce the carbon footprint of the rich and end inequalities that prevent millions of people from having access to power or heating their homes,” Gore said.
According to the BBC, taking a long-haul flight can reduce a person’s CO2 consumption by nearly two tons of CO2 less.
Households switching to renewable electricity can reduce CO2 emissions by about 1.5 tons, while eating a vegetarian diet can save about half a ton on average.
The report released Wednesday also found that the positive environmental impacts of lockdowns earlier this year designed to curb the spread of coronavirus are likely to be short-lived.
It predicted that carbon production will fall by about 7% this year as a result of the pandemic, but estimates that the reduction would only reduce warming by 0.01 ° C by 2050.
Rising temperatures contribute to wildfires that have wreaked havoc in Australia, the Amazon and California this year (pictured), along with other locations
However, the report emphasized that countries have the opportunity to seek a greener way to recover from the pandemic.
It turned out that if the government invests in climate action, the projected emissions by 2030 could be reduced by 25%.
This would give a 66% chance that the planet will keep the temperature below 2C.
“The year 2020 is on track to be one of the hottest on record, while wildfires, storms and droughts continue to wreak havoc,” said Inger Andersen.
However, Unep’s Emissions Gap report shows that a recovery from a green pandemic can reduce much of greenhouse gas emissions and help slow climate change.
‘I call on governments to support a green recovery in the next phase of Covid-19 tax interventions and significantly increase their climate ambitions by 2021.’
According to the report, green recovery has so far been limited, although some countries have committed to zero net emissions by 2050.
However, the ambition of the Paris Climate Agreement should be tripled to reach the 2C target and fivefold to reach the 1.5C target.