Wealthy white men living rurally are the UK’s biggest polluters when it comes to transport-related greenhouse gases, a study has found. The richest 0.1% of people in Britain emit 22 times more greenhouse gases from transport than low earners and 12 times more than the average, according to The Institue for Public Policy research. The report found that half of the British population creates just 10% of the country’s transport emissions, with half of all emissions coming from just 15% of people. Those who earned more than £100,000 travelled twice the distance each year of people who earned less than £30,000. Flights were the biggest source of transport emissions, peaking for people between the ages of 25 and 35, while private road transport emissions peaked for 49-65-year-olds. Men were responsible for about 25% more carbon emissions from transport than women, and white people emitted more than any other ethnicity-based group. The IPPR wants to see a ban on petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 and new taxes on private jets.
