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Cited by 266Climate Change Policy and EconomicsEnergy, Environment, Economic GrowthClimate Change and Sustainable Development

Poverty eradication in a carbon constrained world

Open access
Hubacek, Klaus, Baiocchi, Giovanni, Feng, Kuishuang, Patwardhan, Anand·2017·Nature Communications
DOI 10.1038/s41467-017-00919-4PMC PMC5783954
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Abstract

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to keep warming below 2 °C while recognizing developing countries’ right to eradicate extreme poverty. Poverty eradication is also the first of the Sustainable Development Goals. This paper investigates potential consequences for climate targets of achieving poverty eradication. We find that eradicating extreme poverty, i.e., moving people to an income above $1.9 purchasing power parity (PPP) a day, does not jeopardize the climate target even in the absence of climate policies and with current technologies. On the other hand, bringing everybody to a still modest expenditure level of at least $2.97 PPP would have long-term consequences on achieving emission targets. Compared to the reference mitigation pathway, eradicating extreme poverty increases the effort by 2.8% whereas bringing everybody to at least $2.97 PPP would increase the required mitigation rate by 27%. Given that the top 10% global income earners are responsible for 36% of the current carbon footprint of households; the discourse should address income distribution and the carbon intensity of lifestyles.

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  • The consumption of the wealthiest 10% of the world's population is estimated to account for 36-45% of all GHG emissions and an even higher share of energy and industrial CO2 emissions.

    “the consumption of the wealthiest 10% of the world's population is estimated to account for 36-45% of all GHG emissions and an even higher share of energy and industrial CO2 emissions (25-27).”

    From Carbon Leakage, Consumption, and Trade (2022) · cites this paper as [27]

    The Results section (‘Global carbon inequality’; page unavailable) estimates that the top 10% of income earners accounted for about 36% of global consumption-based carbon emissions in 2010. Our copy does not give a 45% estimate or say that this group had an even higher share of energy and industrial CO2 emissions. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Rich households have higher carbon footprints than poor households.

    “Rich households have higher carbon footprints than poor households; the consumption of the wealthiest 10% of the world's population is estimated to account for 36-45% of all GHG emissions and an even higher share of energy and industrial CO2 emissions (25-27).”

    From Carbon Leakage, Consumption, and Trade (2022) · cites this paper as [27]

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Research works printed but not linked: 37

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Authors
Hubacek, K., Baiocchi, G., Feng, K., & Patwardhan, A.
Affiliations
  • Masaryk University (CZ)
  • University of Maryland, College Park (US)
Corresponding author
  • Hubacek, Klaus
  • Feng, Kuishuang
ORCID
Venue
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2017-10-24
Volume
8
Issue
1
Pages
912-912
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41467-017-00919-4
PMC
PMC5783954
OpenAlex
W2761756583
Cited by
266
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1
FWCI
40.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • University Libraries (University of Maryland) (submittedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (University of Maryland College Park)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (1052875)
  • National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (1052875, DBI—1052875)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (71628301)
  • Grantová Agentura České Republiky (GA16-17978S)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Energy, Environment, Economic Growth
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate Change and Sustainable Development
Keywords
poverty eradication, extreme poverty, climate change mitigation, 2°C target, Sustainable Development Goals, income distribution, household carbon footprint

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