India’s Poor and Rich and their Environmental Behaviour

The National Geographic Society and the international polling firm GlobeScan unveiled a new mechanism for measuring and comparing individual consumer behavior as it relates to the environment.

“Greendex™ 2008: Consumer Choice and the Environment — A Worldwide Tracking Survey” looks at environmentally sustainable consumption and behavior among consumers in 14 countries. This first-of-its-kind study reveals surprising differences between consumers in developed and developing countries in terms of environmentally friendly actions. Consumers in Brazil and India scored highest; U.S.

India’s Poor are more conscious about environment

While Indian consumers (along with Brazilians) outranked others on the Greendex of environmentally sustainable behavior, they came in last on a short quiz of environmental knowledge, correctly answering on average only two of the six questions posed. In particular, only a quarter knew that nearly all plastic is made from crude oil, and (along with American consumers) they were the least likely to know that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the primary cause of recently measured increases in temperature (just over half answered correctly). Four in 10 Indians prefer to repair things rather than replace them, the highest (on par with Hungarians) in the survey. However, only 17% Indians always recycle, the lowest (also on par with Hungarian consumers), likely due to high levels of reuse.

India’s greenhouse gas emissions are being fuelled almost entirely by the rapidly growing rich consumers, who despite being just a fraction of the 1.1-billion population are eating into the carbon space needed for the development of over 800 million poor in the country, according to environmental watchdog Greenpeace.

In a new report titled ‘Hiding behind the poor’, Greenpeace has called for a special tax for higher carbon emissions on the nation’s wealthy consumers, who, it says, are nearly at par with consumers in some of the developed nations in terms of per capita greenhouse gas emissions.

It says the economic divide within India is translating into a widening emission divide, with some 150 million Indians, who are splurging on luxury goods and air travel, producing 4.5 times more carbon emissions than the 800 million poor. The findings of the report (Nov, 2007) Greenpeace said, “…plainly illustrate that the considerably significant carbon footprint of a relatively small wealthy class in the country is camouflaged by the 823 million poor population of the country, who keep the overall per capita emissions below 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.”

Greendex vs Green Peace Report

Unlike other measures that rank countries according to the environmental performance of their governments, businesses and other factors, the Greendex is the first to rank the performance of individual consumers, rather than countries as a whole. The results are strikingly different from existing performance rankings like the Environmental Performance Index, the Environmental Sustainability Index or Ecological Footprint.

Consumption as measured by the Greendex is determined both by the choices consumers actively make — such as repairing rather than replacing items, using cold water to wash laundry, choosing green products rather than environmentally unfriendly ones — and choices that are controlled more by their circumstances — such as the climate they live in or the availability of green products or public transport. The initiative considered both of these factors, with 60 percent of the 65-variable index based on choice or discretionary behavior.

The findings show that consumers in Brazil and India tie for the highest Greendex score for environmentally sustainable consumption at 60 points each. They are followed by consumers in China (56.1), Mexico (54.3), Hungary (53.2) and Russia (52.4). Among consumers in wealthy countries, those in Great Britain, Germany and Australia each have a Greendex score of 50.2, those in Spain register a score of 50.0 and Japanese respondents, 49.1. U.S. consumers have the lowest Greendex score at 44.9. The other lowest-scoring consumers are Canadians with 48.5 and the French with 48.7.

Poor People in developing countries are more likely to:

* Live in smaller residences;
* Prefer green products and own relatively few appliances or expensive electronic devices;
* Walk, cycle, or use public transportation, and choose to live close to their most common destination.

By contrast, rich consumers will contribute badly against the environment:

* They have larger homes and are more likely to have air-conditioning.
* They generally own more cars, drive alone most frequently and use public transport infrequently.
* They are least likely to buy environmentally friendly products and to avoid environmentally unfriendly products.

Discover Your Greendex Score

Individuals around the world can find out where they rank on the Greendex scale by visiting http://event.nationalgeographic.com/greendex/ and taking an abbreviated survey. They can also examine the Greendex survey results by country, measure their knowledge of some basic green issues against what others around the world know, and get tips on living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Read Full Greendex Report on India [PDF} from here

Hiding Behind the Poor : Green Peace Report on CO2 emmissions in India (PDF)