In the 25 years from 1990 to 2015, annual global carbon emissions grew by 60%, approximately doubling total global cumulative emissions. This has brought the world perilously close to exceeding 2°C of warming, and it is now on the verge of exceeding 1.5°C. This paper examines the starkly different contributions of different income groups to carbon emissions in this period. It draws on new data that provides much improved insight into global and national income inequality, combined with national consumption emissions over this 25-year period, to provide an analysis relating emissions to income levels for the populations of 117 countries. Future scenarios of carbon inequality are also presented based on different possible trajectories of economic growth and carbon emissions, highlighting the challenge of ensuring a more equitable distribution of the remaining and rapidly diminishing global carbon budget.

This report is a companion to the independent scientific report Stockholm+50: Unlocking a Better Future (SEI & CEEW, 2022) prepared ahead of the UN international meeting ‘Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity’. The report is meant to capture the perspectives of youth, authored by a group of early-career researchers at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

This discussion brief aims to provide insights into ways that individual researchers can aim to shift rather than reinforce unequal power relations in climate and environment research that disadvantage marginalized communities and the Global South. It seeks to launch wider discussions and actions on the subject to rectify colonial-era legacies that continue to affect power dynamics, detrimentally skewing research and its uptake.

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