Scientists Say Burden of Climate Action Falls Mainly on the Poor

And women and children, but mainly the poor ones. Of course, they have more to lose, and less to gain: Stanford research finds climate change regulation burden heaviest on poor

A bit dated, from Feb 28th of this year, but given the big push for Paris and the Pope’s encyclical, it is germane at the moment. -Anthony

Stanford research reveals that it is ultimately people – not corporations – who would bear the costs of climate change regulation. Under a hypothetical carbon tax, households in the lowest income group would pay as a percent of income more than twice what households in the highest 10 percent of income distribution pay. The findings suggest a fairer way to regulate greenhouse gases in the United States.

New research finds the heaviest burden for climate change regulation falls on the poor, for whom basic necessities take up a bigger chunk of the budget.

The heaviest burden for climate change regulation costs falls on people – especially lower income groups – and not corporations, according to new Stanford research.

The reason is that companies ultimately pass on those costs to people. For the poor, basic necessities take up a bigger chunk of the budget than for the rich.

“Households in the lowest income group pay, as a percent of income, more than twice what households in the highest 10 percent of the income distribution pay,” wrote economist Charles Kolstad, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Remember, on a really cold day in January, Al Gore isn't going to die from lack of heat because the price of energy is through the roof. He's going to hop in his private jets, and fly some place warm. Probably a global warming meeting in Bali or some place like that.

Of course, being socialists, the scientists continue to push for the expensive, and extremely ineffective measures to ameliorate global warming, and propose to tax the rich more to relieve some of the effects on the poor:

“This regressivity can be addressed through transfer payments, if and when the U.S. decides to regulate greenhouse gases leading to climate change,” said Kolstad, who researches environmental economics, regulation and climate change. As an example, he suggests reducing the payroll tax for lower income groups as a way to make a carbon tax more fair.