Millionaires will burn through 2/3 of world's carbon budget by 2050

[Duppers]

Cross-posted from General Discussion:

To limit global warming to below 1.5°C, we can only burn a certain amount of carbon.

But millionaire emissions alone will deplete 72 per cent of this allowance before 2050, according to a paper published in the latest Cleaner Production Letters journal.

“Continued growth in emissions at the top makes a low-carbon transition less likely, as the system's capacity to decarbonize,” the scientists warn.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/03/22/millionaires-will-burn-through-two-thirds-of-the-worlds-carbon-budget-by-2050-scientists-w

[Orrex]

1. They'd burn through it faster if they could

[orthoclad]

2. From the research paper: yachts, air travel and real estate

The Euronews article is poorly written because it refers to a study without linking to it. I did some digging and found the pdf of the paper on Elsevier.
https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2666791622000252?token=A1A006725A2024F70784A0D67FA80C77A384E332021618ADCD97C1BE7F6E913046B83ECFC184E19F7CC2456E2322582A&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20230323131315

"Key drivers of individual emissions include energy-intense trans-
portation, especially private aircraft and yachts, and multiple real estate
ownership, often in different continents (Barros and Wilk, 2021; Bea-
verstock and Faulconbridge, 2014). Studies investigating celebrities,
including US$ billionaires, have found that individuals can cause emissions of up to 1600 t CO2 per year through the use of private aircraft
alone (G ̈ossling, 2019). The largest source of individual emissions is
however yachts: Barros and Wilk (2021) estimate that close to two thirds
of the overall carbon footprint of those billionaires owning yachts is
caused by yacht-ownership. This implies a contribution to climate
change that is up to 6500 times greater for these individuals than the
global average of 4.5 t CO2 per capita and year, or up to 300,000 times
greater than the contribution of the poorest, at 0.1 t CO2 per person and
year (The World Bank, 2022a)." (emphasis mine)

The point of having extra money is conspicuous consumption. If you got it, flaunt it.