World's wealthiest 10% have contributed to two-thirds of global warming since 1990, study finds. Really!

How do you spell demagoguery? And it was published by Nature? When prejudices and biases invade and guide science!

The abstract alone is filled with ideological terms like "climate equity" and "climate justice".

Junk models produce junk science! Garbage in, garbage out!

"Wealthy individuals have a higher carbon footprint. A new study published in Nature Climate Change quantifies the climate outcomes of these inequalities. It finds that the world's wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of observed global warming since 1990 and the resulting increases in climate extremes such as heat waves and droughts. ..."

"... The research sheds new light on the links between income-based emissions inequality and climate injustice, illustrating how the consumption and investments of wealthy individuals have had disproportionate impacts on extreme weather events. These impacts are especially severe in vulnerable tropical regions like the Amazon, Southeast Asia, and southern Africa – all areas that have historically contributed the least to global emissions. ...

Using a novel modeling framework that combined economic data and climate simulations, the researchers were able to trace emissions from different global income groups and assess their contributions to specific climate extremes. They found that emissions from the wealthiest 10% of individuals in the United States and China alone, each led to a two-to threefold increase in heat extremes across vulnerable regions. ..."

From the abstract:

"Climate injustice [???] persists as those least responsible often bear the greatest impacts, both between and within countries.

Here we show how GHG emissions from consumption and investments attributable to the wealthiest population groups have disproportionately influenced present-day climate change.

We link emissions inequality over the period 1990–2020 to regional climate extremes using an emulator-based framework [???]. We find that two-thirds (one-fifth) of warming is attributable to the wealthiest 10% (1%), meaning that individual contributions are 6.5 (20) times the average per capita contribution.

For extreme events, the top 10% (1%) contributed 7 (26) times the average to increases in monthly 1-in-100-year heat extremes globally and 6 (17) times more to Amazon droughts.

Emissions from the wealthiest 10% in the United States and China led to a two- to threefold increase in heat extremes across vulnerable regions. Quantifying the link between wealth disparities and climate impacts can assist in the discourse on climate equity and justice."

World's wealthiest 10% have contributed to two-thirds of global warming since 1990, study finds

The world’s wealthiest 10% caused two thirds of global warming since 1990 (original news release) "Wealthy individuals have a higher carbon footprint. A new study published in Nature Climate Change quantifies the climate outcomes of these inequalities. It finds that the world’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for two thirds of observed global warming since 1990 and the resulting increases in climate extremes such as heatwaves and droughts."

High-income groups disproportionately contribute to climate extremes worldwide (open access)

The lead author of this study Sarah Schöngart (a climate warrior), who has apparently no profile on Google Scholar (Source) Blond, young and naive?

Fig. 1: Overview of the modelling framework using a schematic example.

Fig. 4: Increase in the frequency of 1-in-100-year peak summer heat extremes in selected regions attributable to the top 10% and 1% of emitters. (Looks like spaghetti to me)