Charging the world’s highest consumers could prove a new model for meeting climate finance gaps while reducing wealth inequality, the researchers argue, especially as research continues to show the outsized climate impact of the world’s ultra-rich—including the world’s first trillionaire. “The top 10% are important not only because they cause the most damage but also because they hold the most leverage to reduce it,” Paul Behrens, British Academy global professor at the Oxford Martin School of University of Oxford, and co-author of the study, said in a press release. “The capital they invest, from pensions to infrastructure, decides which industries expand, the firms they run set the choices for everyone else, and the lifestyles they pursue shape what people consider as normal. They often have out-sized agency, not only individually as consumers, but also as investors, employers, trend makers, and market shapers. Their power to cut emissions is even larger than their share of them.”
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