Oxfam: Spain’s richest pollute most, poor pay the price

Smoke rising into atmosphere near Plaza de España in downtown Madrid. Photo: Óscar J. Barroso / Europa Press
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The Spanish affiliate of international development aid agency Oxfam says in a new report that the richest households in Spain pollute twice as much as the poorest.

According to Oxfam Intermón, carbon emissions generated by the poorest 10 percent of all households in Spain are relatively low, comprising just 5.8 percent of all emissions in Spain.

Not so with the richest 10 percent of Spanish households, says the non-governmental organization’s report, which generate carbon emissions that are not only 6.5 percent higher than the national average, but exceed by 230 percent the amount of carbon generated by Spain’s poorest households.

► News Sources: Europa Press, InfoLibre and Onda Cero …

The report, titled Injusticia climática. Lo que contaminan los más ricos y pagan los más vulnerables (“Climate Injustice: How much the rich pollute and the most-vulnerable pay”), says that in the area of transportation alone, the richest 50 percent of the population in Spain is responsible for 64 percent of carbon dioxide expelled into the environment.

The poorest half of the population, says Oxfam, is responsible for generating just slightly more than a third (36 percent) of all transport-related emissions in Spain. The transportation figures outlined in the report are even more stark when considering that the richest 10 percent of Spanish households generate 330 times more carbon emissions than do the poorest 10 percent of the country’s households.

► Download PDF [in Spanish] of Oxfam Intermón’s Climate Injustice report …

On a global scale, the world’s poorest people are most impacted by carbon emissions generated by people living in the world’s richest nations, says the ‘Climate Injustice’ report. That’s because although only one in six people worldwide live in high-income countries such as Spain, the developed world emits 44 times more carbon dioxide into atmosphere than do the world’s developing countries.

According to the report, the average resident of Spain is responsible for generating four times more carbon dioxide each year than the average Chinese citizen, 5.6 times more than a Moroccan, 6.4 times more than a Guatemalan and 16.5 times more carbon dioxide than a citizen of Nigeria.

► Click to read more news about the Environment & Sustainability in Spain …

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