Inequality in Europe: distribution of carbon emissions in Europe 2019

As of 2019, the European countries where the top 10 percent of carbon emitters - as measured by their personal carbon footprint - emitted the greatest share of the national carbon footprint were Slovakia, Finland, and Poland. In Slovakia, almost 35 percent of emissions were made by the top 10 percent of emitters, with the bottom 50 percent of emitters only creating one quarter of the national carbon footprint. In Moldova, Bulgaria, and Greece, the countries with the smallest share emitted by the top 10 percent, the high emitters caused only one-fifth of total emissions. 

While high emitters (i.e. those in the top 10 percent) are not necessarily also people in the higher brackets of the income and wealth distributions, these distributions are highly correlated, as the rich tend to emit high amounts of carbon through their consumption patterns and travel habits. The distribution of carbon emissions is set to become a more common way to discuss environmental policy, as tackling climate change will inherently require high emitters above all to reduce their emissions.