Energy consumption is essential for human wellbeing, but there is enormous inequality in energy use worldwide. The top 10% of global energy consumers use roughly 30 times more energy than the bottom 10%.
Our energy use also drives climate change. So to maintain a safe climate, we may have to use less energy in the future. Achieving this while ensuring that everyone enjoys a decent standard of living may require drastic reductions in global energy inequality.
In a recent study, we modelled how much energy inequality would have to reduce to secure human wellbeing and climate safety. We found that the gap in energy consumption between the world’s lowest and highest energy consumers would have to reduce eight-fold by 2050.
