The rich find ways to escape climate change. Their emissions have not.

{"text":[[{"start":12.76,"text":"The world’s wealthiest people are driving a disproportionate share of global emissions while shielding themselves from the worst effects of climate change, fuelling calls from inequality experts for a rethink of climate policies as world leaders gather for the COP31 summit in Antalya."}],[{"start":30.66,"text":"For years, rich countries have come under fire for their contribution to climate change. But a growing body of research shows that emissions vary greatly not only between countries but within nations — and the wealthy, wherever they are, contribute far more to climate change."}],[{"start":47.48,"text":"Demonstrating the often vast wealth and emissions gap within regions, the latest Oxfam International research has found that an individual in the top 0.1 per cent in Africa is responsible for 530 times more emissions than someone in the poorest 50 per cent."}],[{"start":64.44,"text":"As almost 200 countries gather in Turkey to discuss how to respond to climate change, there are rising calls for politicians to review the policies that leave the majority of populations struggling."}],[{"start":75.32,"text":"“We have a policy gap because we’re trying to come up with like one-size fits-all solutions,” said Malcolm Morgan, a senior research fellow at the University of Leeds, who has led a project mapping carbon footprints across the UK."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":88.6,"text":"Countries focused on green policies that treated everyone as “equal emitters and equally responsible” risked a political backlash, said Alex Maitland, inequality policy adviser at Oxfam."}],[{"start":100.36,"text":"“In the past people were very focused on the divide between rich countries and poor countries and historic emissions responsibility,” he added. “That’s getting more nuanced . . . where it’s not just rich versus poor countries, but it’s the richest people in the world versus the rest of the world in terms of who holds the most responsibility.”"}],[{"start":119.72,"text":"The ultra-rich — defined as the 0.1 per cent of the world’s population or just 8mn people — produce more emissions than nearly half of humanity, Oxfam research released last month found."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":131.08,"text":"Outgoing UN secretary-general António Guterres has long warned of “climate apartheid”, where the wealthy can afford to escape from the consequences of global warming through air conditioning or heating in housing adapted to extreme weather, while poor and vulnerable populations suffer."}],[{"start":147.76,"text":"In some developed countries, emissions attributed to lower-income groups have declined in recent decades, even as the level attributable to the very rich has surged."}],[{"start":157.04,"text":"In the UK, for example, emissions from the UK’s poorest 50 per cent had declined by more than a quarter since 1990, partly thanks to electricity supplies becoming greener because of the rollout of renewables, as well as more efficient homes and technologies, Oxfam’s Maitland said."}],[{"start":173.38,"text":"But emissions for the richest 0.1 per cent jumped by more than half as their consumption increased."}],[{"start":179.54,"text":"An academic study of consumption of goods and services in Sweden in 2024 also found a “strong positive correlation exists between income and total carbon footprints”."}],[{"start":190.34,"text":"Wealthy neighbourhoods in Sweden had much larger carbon footprints in general, said Elena Dawkins, one of the authors of the research by the University of Surrey and the Stockholm Environment Institute. “You do find that if you have higher consumption, higher incomes, then you’re going to have higher footprints.”"}],[{"start":206.92,"text":"The project mapping carbon footprints across the UK by Leeds university’s Morgan shows a big divide between wealthier parts of London and those areas where lower-income households live."}],[{"start":217.58,"text":"The research also revealed nuances across the country, he said. “Richer people have higher carbon footprints — that is generally true, but it’s not as simple as that because it really depends on where you live and how you live.”"}],[{"start":239.87,"text":"Speaking at COP31 this week, Mattias Frumerie, Sweden’s climate ambassador, said governments needed “to design policies in the best possible way to achieve what we want to do, as effectively as possible”."}],[{"start":241.98,"text":"However, as well as addressing individual emissions, he said, the world also needed to focus on the bigger picture by shifting away from fossil fuels with the solutions already available in renewable and clean energy."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":259.06,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794384066_5275.mp3"}