In recent years a number of studies have sought to highlight the role of ‘carbon inequality’ in fuelling the global climate crisis.  The concept aims to highlight the fact that climate change and inequality are inherently linked, and that those on higher incomes contribute disproportionately to climate breakdown, while those on lower incomes are disproportionately impacted by it. Studies have sought to examine the extent of carbon inequality both within individual countries and globally. 

To date however, no robust estimates of the scale of carbon inequality have been produced for Scotland. This paper aims to address this by presenting new data on the carbon footprint of households in Scotland across the income distribution. It finds a large disparity between the carbon footprints of high-income and low-income households, and argues that cost of decarbonisation measures must be shared in way that is fair and just.