A carbon tax on investment income could be more fair and make it less profitable to pollute – a new analysis shows why
About 10 years ago, a very thick book written by a French economist became a surprising bestseller. It was called “Capital in the 21st Century.” In it, Thomas Piketty traces the history of income and wealth inequality over the past couple of hundred years.
The book's insights struck a chord with people who felt a growing sense of economic inequality but didn't have the data to back it up. I was one of them. It made me wonder, how much carbon pollution is being generated to create wealth for a small group of extremely rich households? Two kids, 10 years and a Ph.D. later, I finally have some answers.
In a new study, colleagues and I investigated U.S. households' personal responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2019. We previously studied emissions tied to consumption – the stuff people buy. This time, we looked at emissions used in generating people's incomes, including investment income.
We developed a GHG emissions inventory for all cities and local governments in Europe. Results are available here: openGHGmap.net. This has been a popular resource, with 150,000 views of the post on LinkedIn, and >60,000 hits on the website. Read an overview in Norwegian SciTech News
This paper was covered by The Hill, the Independent, Anthropocene Magazine, the Daily Mail, and The Times
This is the core paper of the Eora global supply chain database.
An easy overview of how spatial footprinting methods are used to link satellite, and other remote-sensed environmental data, to specific economic decisions. Watch lectures presenting spatial footprinting: Leiden EEE Lecture Series and The Alan Turing Institute
This paper was widely covered in the press, including by National Geographic, Scientific American, TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Discover Magazine, AFP (in several languages), Le Monde, National Geographic Nederland/België AFP (Yahoo News The Japan Times etc.) AFP in Japanese AFP in Spanish (SWI etc.) AFP in French (Le Point Europe1 etc.) Fusion Discover Magazine Daily Mail Co.Design Mongabay Mongabay Latam Save Our Seas IBTimes IBTimes UK UPI R&D Magazine The Verge Newsweek en Español EL PAÍS Ouest-France Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Europa Press EL MUNDO Pesquisa Fapesp vozpopuli bez EL DIARIO MONTAÑES SINC Quo Postimees EcoDiario.es Notícias ao Minuto Contagio Radio EFE I4U News MOTHERBOARD Earth.com Deutschlandfunk Natursidan Index.hu Inverse Star2 iTech Post Benzinga O Globo CitizenPost Zanichelli Sciences et Avenir Singularity Hub ScienceDaily EurekAlert Phys.Org Nihon Keizai Shimbun Asahi Shimbun Kyodo News (The Japan Times Nihon Keizai Shimbun Mainichi Shimbun Reuters Tokyo Shimbun etc.) Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Shinano Mainichi Shimbun as well as in Nature Ecology & Evolution Editorial and Video and in Nature Research Highlights
This paper published in Nature was widely covered in the press, including by Scientific
American, BBC,
Reuters,
Le
Monde, AFP, and many national magazines and newspapers. Edgar Hertwich wrote a nice commentary about the paper.
Additional press coverage:
AFP,
COSMOS
magazine,
The
Week UK,
El
Pais,
Straits
Times Singapore,
AsiaOne,
Oesterreichischer
Rundfunk,
Ansa
(Italy),
El
Silenciero (Mexico),
SINC
(Spain),
El
Comercio (Peru),
Science
for Environment Policy News,
9News,
Sydney
Morning Herald,
The
Conversation,
Radio
Australia,
The
Age,
ABC
Rural,
Herald
Sun,
Brisbane
Times,
ABC
Science,
Canberra
Times,
Linden
Gallery,
Kyodo
News (Nihon
Keizai Shimbun,
Tokyo
Shimbun,
Chunichi
Shimbun,
Kyoto
Shimbun,
Chugoku
Shimbun,
Kahoku
Shimpo,
J-Wave
Tokyo Morning Radio,
Faculty
of 1000,
Nature
Podcasts,
Nature
Blogs,
Nature
Commentary
This study found that 29–39% of emissions from deforestation (0.65Gt CO2) are driven by international trade, mainly in beef and oilseeds. One sixth of the carbon footprint of EU diets is due to deforestation emissions.
Read the editorial from Nature
We argued that research on sustainable diets needs to give more attention to non-mainstream foods. The top commodity crops are well-measured and well reported on, but smallholder crops and artisenal fisheries are often neglected in big-picture studies about sustinable diets.
We estimate that the top 0.1% in the US have emissions nearly sixty times higher than bottom decile. The paper went viral on twitter with 700,000 views.
Covered in the Washington Post and Anthropocene.
In this study we estimated the Scope 3 carbon footprint of 13,000 cities globally, drawing on both existing
models and expanding coverage to new countries. The study was reported on in Scientific
American, National
Geographic, Forbes,US
News and World Report, among others.
Project website: citycarbonfootprints.info
Additional press coverage in:
DailyMail
Newsweek (22 June International Edition, page 40)
Yahoo!
World Economic Forum
MIC (AOL)
National Geographic Russia
MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review Japan
TechTimes
Climate News Network
ABC Nyheter
Deutsche Welle
Ciência e Clima
Smart Cities Dive
Presscute
Newshub
Daily Sabah
earth.com
IFLScience
De Ingenieur
scinexx
TimesLIVE
Environment News Service
Korea Herald (Graphic News)
Yonhap News Agency
Korean Daily
Africa Times
EurekAlert
Phys.Org
ScienceNordic
R&D Magazine
Nikkei Shimbun
Kyodo News (Nihon Keizai Shimbun
Tokyo Shimbun
Chunichi Shimbun
Nishinippon Shimbun
Shinano Mainichi Shimbun etc.)
Korea JoongAng Daily (Yahoo! Japan)
NewSphere
NNA Asia
Record China (goo news).
This paper was highlighted as an Editor’s Choice in Science
This paper was highlighted in a special report by The Economist about what individuals and companies can do to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.
Featured as a Research Highlight in Nature Climate Change
This paper prompted a critical response by Dorninger and Hornborg; here is their commentary, and our reply
Carbon footprint and
Input-Output Analysis - An Introduction - by Tommy Wiedmann
The Role of Input-Output Analysis for Screening
Corporate Carbon Footprints Y. Anny Huang et al.
Introduction to Environmentally Extended IO
Analysis - By Anke Schaffartzik and colleagues at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vienna
An Introduction to Environmentally-Extended
Input-Output Analysis - by Justin Kitzes
Calculating
Value Added in Trade - A User Guide - by Aqib Aslam and colleagues at the IMF
Eurostat Input-Output Manual - Along with the UN
SNA, the canonical reference manual.
Input-Output
Analysis: Foundations and Extensions - The textbook by Miller and Blair
Manfred Lenzen's MRIO lecture series on
YouTube - Highly recommended