Rising Inequality Accelerates Global Climate Crisis

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

The accumulation of still-growing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in an increasingly unequal world is accelerating planetary heating and deepening disparities, especially between the rich and the rest, both nationally and internationally.

In our grossly unequal world, international disparities account for two-thirds of overall income inequalities. National income averages often obscure large disparities within countries.

The World Inequality Report finds that GHG emission gaps are mainly driven by inequalities within nations. These internal disparities now account for almost two-thirds of global emissions inequality — nearly double the share in 1990.

The bottom halves of rich country populations are already at, or close to, the 2030 per capita carbon dioxide equivalent emission targets set by their governments. Yet, North America’s wealthiest 10% are the world’s largest GHG emitters, averaging 73 times the emissions of the bottom half of South and Southeast Asia’s populations.

In North America, the bottom half emits nearly ten tons per capita annually, compared to about five tons in Europe and three tons in East Asia. By contrast, the Global South has much smaller carbon footprints — though the top deciles in those regions still emit far more than their own lower halves.

Economists Jayati Ghosh, Shouvik Chakraborty, and Debamanyu Das argue that inequality fuels rising GHG emissions. Between 1990 and 2019, per capita emissions for the bottom halves in the US and Europe fell by 15–20%, while the top 1% increased theirs. The top 10% alone accounts for nearly half of all GHG emissions.

Despite claims to the contrary, most carbon taxes are regressive, hitting middle- and low-income groups harder than the wealthy. Cutting emissions will require curbing both excessive consumption by the rich and resource-extractive production that feeds it.

Meanwhile, transnational corporations and Western governments have resisted the public health exception (PHE) to the WTO’s TRIPS agreement. Although agreed in 2001, this exception was denied to developing countries during COVID-19, preventing them from producing affordable tests, treatments, and vaccines.

Given this history, major intellectual property concessions to help poorer nations tackle climate change seem unlikely.

Historical GHG emissions are the main cause of planetary warming, with developed countries responsible for almost 80% of cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2011. The impacts fall hardest on developing countries in the tropics, which also have fewer resources to cope.

‘Net-zero’ pledges often ignore historical emissions, allowing wealthy nations to sidestep responsibility for “climate debt” and avoid compensating vulnerable nations for damages already suffered.

At current rates, rich nations’ projected emissions will consume three-fifths of the remaining global carbon budget to keep warming below 1.5°C by 2050. Even the most optimistic Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios expect this threshold to be crossed by 2040 — and some experts warn it could happen by the end of this decade.