Carbon emissions and income inequality

We find that the distribution of income matters to aggregate carbon dioxide emissions and hence global warming. Higher inequality, both between and wi thin countries is associated with lower carbon emissions at given average i ncomes. We also confirm that economic growth generally comes with higher em issions. Thus our results suggest that trade-offs exist between climate con trol ton the one hand) and both social equity and economic growth ton the o ther). However, economic growth improves the trade off with equity, and low er inequality improves the trade off with growth. By combining growth with equity, more pro-poor growth processes yield better longer-term trajectorie s of carbon emissions.