The Guardian view on the carbon divide: climate policies must target the private jet set | Editorial

Noticing massive historical and geographical disparities in carbon emissions is not enough. Big polluters must be stoppedFrom luxury yachts to private jets and supercars, the enormously destructive travel and leisure habits of the super-rich are to the fore in the latest research on the carbon gap that divides the world's wealthiest people from everyone else. Calculations by Oxfam, the Stockholm Environment Institute and others reveal that the richest 1% produced as much carbon pollution in one year as the 5 billion people who make up the poorest two-thirds of humanity. Though they number just 2,600, the combined wealth of the world's billionaires is greater than the GDP of all but two countries - the US and China. The impact on the environment of their carbon?intensive behaviour is colossal.But as this week's Guardian series, the great carbon divide, has shown, outsized emissions are not only the work of this minority of the ultra-wealthy. Nor are they confined to the far larger number of individuals with a net worth of at least $1m, combined with energy?intensive lifestyles, who social scientist Dario Kenner calls the "polluter elite". In fact, half of all emissions are produced by the top 10% - that is, the much bigger group of about 800 million people who earn at least $40,000. While in their own countries these people are regarded as middle income or middle class, their consumption and emissions far outstrip those of 90% of the world's inhabitants. Continue reading...