Cutting energy and emissions by reducing outputs from high earners

Summary

High earners consume more energy and thereby create more greenhouse gas emissions.  One way of reducing both would be to cut energy usage of the top earners. If energy use were capped at the average for all earners then those in the top four income deciles would see cuts in their usage.  High earners (10) would see the largest fall by 44% followed by 29% (9) and 18% (8).  Overall energy use would be cut by 15%.  Most people would not see any reductions at all. 

 

The largest reduction in energy use would come from the transport component. The overall reduction would be 18GJ equivalent to 20% of total transport.  The biggest falls would be for those in the top three income deciles – 8, 9 and 10.  

 

Overall the reduction in energy used in transport would account for 77% of the total fall.

 

Data

 

All
Income	Old	Adjusted	Change
Decile	GJ	GJ	GJ	%
10	279	155	124	44
9	220	155	65	29
8	190	155	35	18
7	161	155	5	3
6	144	144	0	0
5	136	136	0	0
4	117	117	0	0
3	107	107	0	0
2	102	102	0	0
1	100	100	0	0
Average	155	133	23	15

 

 

Transport
Income	Old	Adjusted
Decile	GJ	GJ	GJ	%
10	186	92	95	51
9	144	92	53	36
8	119	92	28	23
7	96	92	4	4
6	84	84	0	0
5	77	77	0	0
4	61	61	0	0
3	52	52	0	0
2	49	49	0	0
1	49	49	0	0
Average	92	74	18	20

 

 

Transport share of changes
	Transport	All	Share
	GJ	GJ	%
10	95	124	77
9	53	65	81
8	28	35	80
7	4	5	80
6	0	0	0
5	0	0	0
4	0	0	0
3	0	0	0
2	0	0	0
1	0	0	0
Average	18	23	79

 

 

Notes

Energy footprints of British households in 2019 by income grouping, where 1 is the lowest income 10% of the population and 10 is the highest income 10%. Footprints are measured in gigajoules (GJ) per “adult equivalent”, which is based on dividing the energy use of a household by the number of people, accounting for the fact that children contribute less. Chart made by Tom Prater for Carbon Brief using Highcharts. Source: Baltruszewicz et al. (2022).

 

Data from the original source has been reworked to create the additional data analysis.

 

Domestic includes Furniture, clothing and communications.

 

Source

Gabittis, J., (14th December 2022), Richest people in UK ‘use more energy flying’ than poorest do overall, Carbon Brief.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/richest-people-in-uk-use-more-energy-flying-than-poorest-do-overall/