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“There needs to be a strong shift in power”: Emily Ghosh on “the great carbon divide” in the Guardian

Drawing from Oxfam International’s new report, “Climate Equality: A planet for the 99%,” the Guardian writes a series about the chasm between the world’s richest and the rest of the population in terms of their contributions to carbon pollution.

In the introductory article, “The great carbon divide,” the Guardian quotes SEI Scientist Emily Ghosh, who helped provide the foundational research that informed Oxfam’s report.

Published on 20 November 2023

The Guardian is running a series this week on the “polluter elite,” shining a spotlight on how the world’s richest 1% and 10% contribute a lopsided portion of the planet’s carbon pollution.

In particular, the top 10%, or those who earn at least US $40,000 or £32,000, generated half of all carbon dioxide emissions in 2019, the latest year for which robust data is available.

The series is informed by a new report by Oxfam International on the topic, which, in turn, uses data generated by SEI’s Emissions Inequality Dashboard.

With the climate problem, we can’t ignore what people in the top 1% and 10% are doing. ... There needs to be a strong shift in power.

Emily Ghosh, SEI Scientist

The Guardian spoke with Emily Ghosh, a researcher based in SEI’s US Centre who is part of the Emissions Inequality Dashboard team.

“With the climate problem, we can’t ignore what people in the top 1% and 10% are doing. They have a global impact,” she told the Guardian. “We need to address this because it has gone unchallenged for too long. We need to look more closely to see how investments lock us into certain patterns of consumption, and who makes those decisions. There needs to be a strong shift in power.”

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