Boomers and carbon emission

Boomers are having a bigger impact on the climate than any other age group

Or at least, this is what a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change claims.

Life expectancy and sustainability

Approaching Earth Day and at a time when sustainability is growing in importance, studies on carbon emissions are multiplying. And to discover that people over 60 accounted for nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions in 2015, is revealing

In 2005, over 60s contributed around 25% to the national total of consumption-based emissions. That is, emissions caused by energy for your home or petrol for your car. And this number jumped to 32.7% in 2015, according to scientists including those from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

In fact, it seems that this trend will increase because of life expectancy. Actually, the number of people born in the 1950s and 1960s on their way into old age is higher. And the elderly population in the 32 countries in the NTNU study is estimated to double between 2019 and 2050. This group of people are also able to maintain their high consumption through their wealth from the real estate they own and an increasing proportion of this age group live alone contributing to emissions.

The demographic change poses more challenges in local mitigation and calls for deeper public mitigation efforts.

Ways of reducing carbon footprint

One of the key points that society must work on is sustainability awareness. And it must be worked on all population sectors, specially the older ones.

And of course, each area and each company must work to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere. For example, in the world of business travel, TROOP helps companies focused on environmental commitments by guiding their teams as they aim to keep to carbon targets. It helps meeting planners understand the environmental impact of their meetings so they can meet more sustainably.

Do you want to know more? Don’t hesitate and book a meeting with our team now!