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The wealthiest 10 percent of people on Earth have fueled two-thirds of the warming since 1990, according to a new modeling study.
The top 1 percent alone are responsible for one-fifth of warming, not just by using more energy, authors say, but by investing in sectors, like fossil fuels, that are driving up emissions.
The study further shows how the world’s wealthiest are fueling severe weather worldwide, particularly in poorer countries. It finds that, compared to the average person, the world’s richest 1 percent have contributed 26 times as much to extreme heat globally and 17 times as much to droughts in the Amazon specifically.
The research, published in Nature Climate Change, adds to a growing body of work linking emissions to extreme weather. It follows on a recent paper in Nature which contends that climate science has evolved to the point where it is now possible to hold specific companies legally liable for damage from climate change. As a test of that proposition, authors estimate that Chevron alone is responsible for up to $3.6 trillion in losses from more extreme heat worldwide.
“Will it ever be possible to sue anyone for damaging the climate?” they write. “We argue that the scientific case for climate liability is closed.”
