Department of Environmental Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Vileikos st. 8, LT-44404, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Centre of Mathematics, Physics and Information Technology, Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy, Studentų str. 11, LT-53361, Akademija, Kauno r., Lithuania.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Dec;27(34):43067-43076. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-10244-x. Epub 2020 Jul 29.
In recent decades, a large number of authors investigated whether income inequality level and climate change were compatible. However, the relationship between inequality level impact and consumption-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was scarcely analysed. Thus, the objective of the present paper was to analyse the relationship between income inequality level and consumption-based GHG emissions from 1990 to 2014 under different stages of economic development. The results revealed a large gap between consumption-based GHG emissions at different economic development stages. Economic growth contributed to the growth of consumption-based GHG emissions in all income groups, and the largest effect was observed in middle-low- and low-income countries. Higher income inequality level was associated with lower negatively influenced consumption-based emissions in high- and middle-high-income countries, confirming the marginal propensity to emit and 'Veblen effect' theories. Meanwhile, regarding the middle-low- and low-income groups, the relationships between inequality level and GHG emissions were insignificant. Urbanisation level contributed to the growth of consumption-based GHG emissions in middle- and low-income countries. Education level contributed to the reduction of consumption-based GHG emissions in high-, middle-high-, and middle-low-income countries, and growth of emissions in low-income countries. Therefore, our analysis revealed that income inequality and climate change are still incompatible in all income groups, and we suggested how to achieve the reduction of income inequality and climate change simultaneously.
近几十年来，大量作者研究了收入不平等水平和气候变化是否兼容。然而，不平等水平影响与基于消费的温室气体（GHG）排放之间的关系很少被分析。因此，本论文的目的是分析 1990 年至 2014 年不同经济发展阶段下收入不平等水平与基于消费的 GHG 排放之间的关系。结果表明，不同经济发展阶段的基于消费的 GHG 排放之间存在很大差距。经济增长促进了所有收入群体基于消费的 GHG 排放的增长，而在中低收入和低收入国家观察到的影响最大。较高的收入不平等水平与高收入和中高收入国家的基于消费的排放量的负向影响较低有关，证实了边际排放倾向和“凡勃伦效应”理论。同时，对于中低收入群体，不平等水平与 GHG 排放之间的关系并不显著。城市化水平促进了中低收入国家基于消费的 GHG 排放的增长。教育水平促进了高、中高和中低收入国家基于消费的 GHG 排放的减少，并促进了低收入国家的排放增长。因此，我们的分析表明，在所有收入群体中，收入不平等和气候变化仍然不兼容，我们提出了如何同时实现减少收入不平等和气候变化的建议。
