From Chile to Haiti: the unequal CO₂ emissions in Latin America

The entire world calls on itself to decarbonize its production and consumption dynamics.

Latin America is no exception.

And furthermore, such a prominence of the question of who should bear the responsibility for this decarbonization was not known in their democracies.

In a region with great availability of raw materials and fossil fuels, but deep inequities both between and within countries, that “who” not only concerns the region as a whole, but its components.

The 10% that emits the most in Latin America produced 17.8 equivalent tons of carbon dioxide or CO₂ in the last available year.

The next 40% only 4.8 tons.

And the final 50%, barely 2. That is to say: the top 10% accumulated as many issues as the next 40% and more than the final 50%.

This was in 2019, the last data available in the database prepared and published by the economist Lucas Chancel in the scientific journal

within the framework of the World Inequality Database.

The inequality suggested by this first data deepens even more when one focuses exclusively on the 1% that emits the most, and opens up to the comparison between countries in the region.

Chile tops the list, followed by Venezuela and Paraguay.

It should be remembered here that we are talking about estimates based on a relatively complex approximation that takes imports and exports into account: what is measured is the approximate emissions footprint attributable to an individual in each country.

If the country has an economy more based on production or consumption dynamics that imply a higher degree of emissions, the result will be higher.

And besides, that dynamic is concentrated.

This is what happens, for example, in Chile.

There, not only is the value of the top 1% especially high, but the gap between it and the rest of the population is especially notable.

This has key distributional implications: in Chile, the top 1% of emitters account for 13% of the total emissions attributed to individuals.

In Argentina, in contrast, it does not reach 5%.

In fact, in Chile, the top 1% would itself have more emissions behind it than the next 9%.

Despite these levels, it is worth clarifying that not even the top 1% of emitters with the highest impact per capita reach the levels of China or the United States, which lead the ranking of countries with the highest volume of absolute CO₂.

Actually, even Germany, an industrial nation but with more modest levels of emissions and in sharp decline over the last few decades, now outperforms all of Latin America in this ranking.

This is essential to put into context that even the largest issuers in Latin America are not at the level of the rich economies, which leveraged precisely past (and present) issues to consolidate that level of aggregate wealth.

Now, the trend of some of those who are in the top 1% of Latin American issuers is upward (never as fast as China's, yes), to the point that perhaps in 2023 it will converge with the German fall.

The same happens at a lower level with Brazil, which has stabilized at a higher level than Spain, or with Peru, Panama or Bolivia.

In contrast, the top 1% in Mexico have fallen, as have those in Ecuador.

It is not convenient to rush to draw quick conclusions from these dynamics: they are influenced by both economic growth (which could explain the fluctuations in Venezuela or Argentina, two of the most unstable economies not only in the region, but in the entire world) as well as the distribution of the same between layers of society and productive decisions.

Also, this is only an incomplete part of the film: let's go back, for example, to Chile.

It is true that its top 1% heads the Latin American list, but in 2013 it reached 120 average equivalent tons per head.

That year it momentarily surpassed even the Chinese top 1%.

Since then, in reality, it has only fallen.

Because in emissions, being in the lead also means that you have more power to influence the long-awaited decarbonization.

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