World leaders should aggressively reduce the carbon footprint of the richest to reduce the effects of climate change, experts said.
After a UN report found that the richest 1% pumped more than twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as 50%.
It is not the first time that rich characters are accused of leading climate change with their generous lifestyle choices.
Orlando Bloom, Katy Perry and Leonardo DiCpario were among a host of well-chopped celebrities criticized for attending a Google climate summit in Italy last year – arriving on private jets and yachts that left an estimated carbon footprint at 800 tons.
Katy Perry (center left) and Orlando Bloom (center right) were among a number of celebrities criticized following a Google climate conference in Italy last year, in which they participated by private jet and yacht (pictured, behind room, are Oprah Winfrey and Bradley Cooper)
Perry and Bloom had taken a trip to the Sicilian conference at Rising Sun, a massive private yacht owned by music and film producer David Geffen (pictured behind).
DiCaprio, the UN climate ambassador, has previously been criticized for commenting on the issue, despite frequent private jet flights, renting a yacht from an oil baron and owning four houses.
The Oxfam Confronting Carbon Inequality report highlighted SUVs and frequent flights as two of the biggest factors in the “1 percent” carbon footprint, with many billionaires knowing they own private jets.
Like the UN report released this week, it found that the top 1% contributes significantly more to climate change than the bottom 50%.
Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, is known to be traveling on a $ 65 million Gulfstream plane, and in October 2018, he was photographed driving an SUV to the airport with then-mistress Lauren Sanchez before jumping on board. aircraft.
Billionaire Mark Cuban owns three planes – a Gulfstream that he uses as private transportation and two Boeing business planes, one that he rents as a charter and another that he uses to fly his basketball team, Business reported Insider.
And despite producing green electric cars through Tesla, Elon Musk’s love for private jets made headlines after he flew 150,000 miles using a Gulfstream jet in 2018.
Other billionaires who own polluting vehicles are Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov, owners of two of the largest private yachts in the world.
Also criticized for attending the conference was Leonardo DiCaprio, who was previously set on fire for using private jets (pictured landing a plane in 2013)
UN climate ambassador DiCaprio has spoken out on the issue for several years, despite criticism of some of his lifestyle choices.
According to the UN, the richest will have to significantly reduce their CO2 footprints to avoid the dangerous levels of global warming of this century.
The annual study, conducted by the UN Environment Program (UNEP), highlights the gap between emission levels should be to maintain low temperatures and current levels in real life.
It found that the top 10% of employees in the world devour about 45% of all energy consumed by land transport worldwide and 75% of that used for aviation.
Meanwhile, the poorest 50% of the world’s households consume only 10% and 5%, respectively.
To achieve the goal of restricting temperature rises in this century to 1.5C, significant reductions in carbon footprints of 1% will have to be made, reducing them to about 2.5 tonnes of CO2 per capita by 2030.
“This elite will have to reduce its footprint by a factor of 30 in order to remain in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement,” Unep Executive Director Inger Anderson wrote in a preface to the report.
“The rich have the greatest responsibility in this area,” she added.
Tim Gore, head of climate policy at Oxfam and author of the report, said that while the world’s richest people consume the most, others have had negative effects on the environment.
Other “1 percent” figures for frequent use of polluting vehicles are Jeff Bezos (left) who owns a $ 65 million plane and Roman Abramovich (right) owner of one of the largest yachts in the world
“The UNEP report shows that the over-consumption of a rich minority fuels the climate crisis, yet poor communities and young people are the ones paying the price.”
“It will be practically and politically impossible to reduce the emissions gap if governments do not reduce the carbon footprint of the rich and end the inequalities that leave millions of people without access to energy or unable to heat their homes,” Gore said.
According to the BBC, a shorter flight could reduce a person’s CO2 consumption by almost two tonnes of CO2.
Households switching to renewable electricity can reduce carbon by about 1.5 tons, while consuming a vegetarian diet can save an average of about half a ton, he said.
The report, released on Wednesday, also found that the positive environmental effects of blockages earlier this year, designed to stop the spread of coronavirus, are likely to be short-lived.
He predicted that carbon production would fall by about 7% this year due to the pandemic, but estimated that the reduction would only reduce heating by 0.01C by 2050.
Rising temperatures are a contributing factor to devastating fires in Australia, the Amazon and California (pictured) this year, along with other locations
However, the report highlighted that countries have the opportunity to look for a greener way to recover from the pandemic.
He found that if the government invests in climate action, emissions projected for 2030 could be reduced by 25%.
This would give a 66% chance that the planet would maintain temperatures below 2C.
“The year 2020 is about to be one of the hottest on record, while fires, storms and droughts continue to wreak havoc,” said Inger Andersen.
“However, the Unep Emissions Gap report shows that a recovery from the green pandemic can remove a huge slice of greenhouse gas emissions and can help slow climate change.
“I urge governments to support a green recovery in the next phase of Covid-19 fiscal interventions and to significantly raise their climate ambitions in 2021.”
Ecological recovery has so far been limited, according to the report, although some countries have committed to issuing zero net by 2050.
However, the ambition of the Paris Climate Agreement should be tripled to maintain the 2C target and increased fivefold to reach the 1.5C target.