Center for Global Development: Wealthy countries hit by climate hypocrisy

The Center for Global Development (CGD) has published a study highlighting the "huge energy disparity" between rich and poor countries, reports The Guardian. According to CGD Europe policy analyst Ewan Ritchie, the work was prompted by the "climate hypocrisy" of Western countries, including the UK and the US: "At the Glasgow summit, representatives of rich countries were wringing their hands over the extent to which aid to poor countries should finance fossil fuels. This hypocrisy caught my attention. Our analysis shows that the average person in the UK produces more climate emissions in just a few days than people in many low-income countries do in a whole year. It would be cruel irony if the countries that contributed the least to this problem could not get access to the energy infrastructure”.

The CGD study used data from the World Bank on per capita carbon emissions for each country. Using them, analysts calculated how much the energy consumption of a citizen of the UK or the US exceeds the energy consumption of a resident of a low- or middle-income country. As a result, it turned out that each Briton produces 200 times more climate emissions than the average Congolese, and US residents - 585 times more. The carbon emissions of one Briton in January alone will exceed the annual emissions of citizens of 30 low- and middle-income countries.

The results can be seen in full on the website.