Income, the primary determinant of the French carbon footprint

“The average level of the annual individual footprint of the French”, that is to say the total greenhouse gas emissions induced by their lifestyle, “would be around 8 tonnes of CO2eq for year 2022", estimates the study by Citepa and the Association for the Low Carbon Transition, carried out from a declarative survey by Opinionway among 4.096 people representative of the adult population.

This result, probably a little underestimated, according to the authors, is lower than the 9 tonnes of CO2eq (CO2 equivalent) estimated by official statistics.

But the interest of the study mainly concerns the identification of decarbonization levers, while this average footprint represents “4 times the objective of 2 tonnes per person which would limit global warming to 2°C”.

The authors note that “the carbon footprint seems fairly uniform within the different regions of France”.

On the other hand, “income emerges as the main determinant” with “a particularly strong effect on the highest brackets”, they write.

For the three categories of monthly income below 1.500 euros, the average footprint varies between 7 and 7,4 tonnes per adult. Beyond and up to 5.000 euros, it is between 8,1 and 8,5 on average.

It then rises to 9,6 tonnes for the tranche up to 6.500 euros, and reaches 11,6 tonnes of CO2eq for the final tranche.

However, "the differences found here are much smaller" than those from other works, such as those of economists Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty, note the authors.

“The main consumption items contributing to the carbon footprint are transport (25%), food (23%), housing (18%) and societal services (18%),” the study concludes.

“It is almost exclusively on transport that the highest incomes widen the gap (...), this area representing up to 39% of total emissions” of the last tranche, because of the plane in particular .

“This increase based on income is partly offset by the fact that the footprint per euro of income tends to decrease sharply with income.”

But "the level of income does not explain everything" and the individual footprint "depends more on movable durable goods (for example a refrigerator, a car) and real estate (an apartment for example), as well as on the proportion of income allocated to the consumption".

“Few French people emit less than 5t each year (6%), and absolutely no respondent obtains a footprint of less than 3t,” Citepa and ABC further note.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.