Why in News? A recent study - ‘Water, air pollution and carbon footprints of conspicuous/luxury consumption in India’ - highlights the environmental impact of affluent individuals.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Need for the Study
• What the Study Examines?
• What is the Methodology of the Study?
• Key Findings of the Study
• What are the Implications of the Findings of the Study and Way Forward?

Need for the Study:

• While climate change is a global concern, issues such as water scarcity and air pollution are often localised or regionalised.
• For instance, excessive water use in one region might not have a direct impact on water scarcity in another.
• It is imperative to prioritise local environmental concerns, which raises the significance of comprehending the environmental footprints of households.

What the Study Examines?

• It especially looks at the carbon, water, and particulate matter (PM2.5) footprints linked to the choices Indian households (across a range of income levels) make about luxury consumption.
  • The luxury consumption basket includes various categories such as dining out, vacations, furniture, social events, etc.
• The analysis compares these luxury consumption footprints with those associated with non-luxury consumption.

What is the Methodology of the Study?

• The study employed an input/output analysis encompassing the entire economy to establish a connection between various aspects of household consumption and the resources required for their manufacturing.
• This methodology facilitated the identification and consolidation of the environmental impacts linked to every phase of manufacturing.
• For example,
  • The water footprint was utilised to quantify water usage throughout various stages of production of different goods and services, as well as direct water usage by households.
  • The PM2.5 footprint included direct emissions from household activities such as the use of fuelwood, kerosene, and vehicular fuels.
  • Similarly, the CO2 footprint was used to capture both embedded and direct CO2 emissions associated with household consumption.

Key Findings of the Study:

• Increase in all three environmental footprints:
  • As households move from poorer to richer economic classes all 3 environmental footprints increase.
  • The footprints of the wealthiest 10% of households are around twice as large as the population's average.
  • This suggests that the wealthiest segment exhibits substantial increases in consumption-related environmental footprints primarily due to increased expenditure on luxury consumption items.
• Key contributors to the rise in the environmental footprints:
  • Eating out/restaurants are a significant contributor to the rise in environmental footprints across all three footprints.
  • Fruits and nuts intake is cited as a contributing reason to the rise in water footprint.
  • Eating out, jewellery, and personal goods are luxury consumption products that increase the carbon and air pollution footprint.
• Other findings:
  • Although switching from biomass to LPG lowers direct footprints, affluent lifestyle choices increase PM2.5 footprints, which in turn increases the CO2 footprint.
  • The top decile in India has an average yearly CO2 footprint of 6.7 tonnes per person, which is more than the 1.9 tonnes CO2eq/cap needed to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement.

What are the Implications of the Findings of the Study and Way Forward?

• The local and regional environmental issues exacerbated by luxury consumption disproportionately affect marginalised communities.
• This emphasises how crucial multi-footprint analysis is to resolving environmental justice issues and guaranteeing fair sustainability initiatives.
• Since the aspirations of a wider society are influenced by the lives of the elite, policymakers should prioritise efforts to nudge consumption levels of affluent households downwards to align with sustainability goals.