The well off are contributing more than their fair share of greenhouse gas emissions from transport, driving more frequently and over longer distances, according to a new study. The work is published in the journal Travel Behaviour and Society.

The study of New Zealanders’ travel habits found that total weekly travel emissions were 79% higher for people in affluent areas compared to those living in lower socio-economic areas.

  • Dave@lemmy.nzM
    5·
    14 days ago

    I guess this is not that surprising. Globally, rich countries produce more emissions than poorer countries (per capita).

    I did wonder whether EVs would have come into play here, but their 2015-2019 time period may be a little early for the increased EV adoption of the last 5 years or so.

    Another factor is that there are a lot more people working from home now, and these jobs tend to be office jobs like IT that probably pay more. That should reduce a lot of transport emissions.

    It would be interesting to see this study repeated.