‘Mega-consumers’ of food and energy cost environment $5.7tn a year, study finds

high · Guardian Environment · Jonathan Watts Global environment writer · 18 Jun 2026 · 15:00 UTC · Climate Collapse · 1 min read

Summary

Documents the dystopian reality of extreme inequality where the global north's mega-consumers generate existential environmental damage ($5.7tn annually) while most of humanity bears the consequences, exemplifying climate disaster and resource allocation failure.

Top 10% generate climate and biodiversity damage bill that exceeds economies of most countries, say researchers
The environmental damage bill racked up by the highest-consuming 10% of the world’s population has reached up to $5.7tn a year – larger than the economy of every country except the US and China, a study has found.
Mega-consumers in this group are concentrated in the global north, accounting for more than half the population of the US and 40-45% of people in the EU.

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‘Mega-consumers’ of food and energy cost environment $5.7tn a year, study finds

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