News: Recently, World Inequality Lab has released the Climate Inequality Report 2025.
About Climate Inequality Report 2025
- The report reveals how wealth drives the climate crisis, and proposes new policy options to address it.
- Published by: It is published by the World Inequality Lab.
- Key highlights of Report 2025
- Wealthy individuals fuel the climate crisis through their investments even more than through their consumption and lifestyles.
- The top 1% cause 15% of global consumption-based emissions, while they account for 41% of emissions linked to private capital ownership.
- Per capita emissions are 75 times higher for a top 1% individual than for someone in the bottom 50% (consumption-based); this rises to 680 times when based on asset ownership.
- Climate change can deepen wealth inequality, while well-designed policies can help reduce it.
- The top 1% could see their share of world wealth jump from 38% to 46% by 2050 if they own tomorrow’s low-carbon assets.
- It is widely estimated that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of industrial GHG emissions since the Industrial Revolution.
- Recommendations
- It recommends a global ban on all new fossil fuel investments to stop adding fresh high-carbon assets to the economy.
- It proposes a financial investment tax on the carbon content of assets, so that portfolios with higher embedded emissions face higher taxes.
- It calls for major public investment in low-carbon infrastructure to accelerate the transition and support sustainable economic growth.
