Questions of social and economic class must be at the centre of our response to the climate crisis, to address the huge inequalities between the carbon footprints of the rich and poor and prevent a backlash against climate policies, the economist Thomas Piketty has said.
Regulations will be needed to outlaw goods and services that have unnecessarily high greenhouse gas emissions, such as private jets, outsized vehicles, and flights over short distances, he said in an interview with the Guardian.
Rich countries must also put in place progressive carbon taxes that take into account people’s incomes and how well they are able to reduce their emissions, as current policies usually fail to adjust for people’s real needs.
We absolutely should, but it’s not going to make much of a difference overall.
Transportation is 14% of ghg emissions
Aviation is 13% of that in the EU (I couldn’t link the US one, but it’s similar)
Private jets are about 0.2% of total aviation emissions.
This absolutely should be done, but it’s not necessarily going to do a whole lot overall, just low hanging fruit.
It’s the same argument as banning private schools - if the rich have to use the same infrastructure as the rest of us, they’ve got less incentive to dismantle it.