A new study confirms the link between standard of living and carbon footprint in Switzerland. This Monday, Caritas is publishing the results of research carried out with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). Conclusion: the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per household is proportional to income. If we take the 10% of the best-paid households, they reject four times more than the lowest 10%.
The explanation is simple: the richest consume more. There are some nuances to these results: large households, such as families, cause fewer emissions per capita than smaller ones, young people more than older people.
The study also reveals that emissions due to traffic increase sharply with income, much more than those linked to housing. “Those who have more money take planes and drive much more often,” explains Aline Masé of Caritas Switzerland.
For heating, the differences are smaller, particularly because high incomes have more means to insulate their homes and thus reduce their energy consumption. In this context, Caritas considers that it would be fairer to tax gasoline and diesel vehicles more than boiler fuel. In 2020, EPFL had already made a similar observation: the carbon footprint depends more on the socio-economic level of the population than on its habitat, rural or urban.
