Inequality and sustainability

Carbon inequality mirrors extreme wealth and income inequalities globally, with a high level of consumption-based carbon emissions in rich nations. This study shows that lifting people out of poverty does not impact much emissions globally, though in poorer countries emissions could more than double.

Understanding the connection between economic inequality and climate change requires rich and reliable data. This study combines recently assembled data on income and wealth inequality with environmental data to shed light on the uneven individual contributions to climate change across the world.

Transitioning the global energy system to renewables will likely expand energy transition minerals and metals (ETMs) projects to sensitive territories. Across 5,097 projects globally, greater than half of the ETM resource base appears to be located on or near the lands of Indigenous and peasant peoples whose rights to consultation are embedded in United Nations declarations.

Carbon pricing can alter income distribution. With a focus on Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, this study compares four types of carbon pricing schemes and finds substantial variation in distributional effects across policy designs and countries.

The fertility transition, expressed through falling birth rates and increased well-being for women and children, is a function of many social and economic changes. This paper examines the role of access to electricity and modern cooking fuels on fertility rates, suggesting that cleaner energy and ending energy poverty contribute to gender equality and the achievement of other Sustainable Development Goals.

Carbon use often tracks economic development. This study finds the top 5% of Chinese households by income have 17% of the nation’s carbon ‘footprint’ in 2012 but that such inequality declined with China’s economic growth.

Carbon taxes can increase the cost of basic goods. This modelling study finds that using one-third of carbon tax revenues for cash transfers to the poor can compensate such regressive impacts.

A large multinational survey of perceived energy affordability shows that it concerns individuals regardless of the countries’ level of income, although some patterns also related to regional, economic and cultural factors.

Increased electricity availability has been posited as a boost for gender equity by providing women with access to appliances. However, social and household norms could mitigate this access, as this mixed-methods study investigates.

Minority groups are often disproportionately exposed to air pollution, but what drives these disparities is difficult to analyse. Using the economic shutdown associated with the 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, this study estimates pollution exposure disparities caused by the in-person economy in California.

Wildfire increases are worsening air quality in many regions, undoing gains in pollution control. This study finds that across the United States, exposure to fine particulates in wildfire smoke worsened test scores, especially among younger students, and that most costs are borne by disadvantaged districts.

The risks to human well-being of floods in the United States have long been overlooked and underestimated, particularly for low-income and marginalized communities. In Los Angeles, flood risks are disproportionately high for historically disadvantaged populations and communities already facing social inequities.

Millions of premature deaths each year can be attributed to ambient particulate air pollution. While exposure to harmful particulates decreases in future scenarios with reduced fossil fuel combustion, across much of the globe, socio-demographic factors dominate health outcomes related to air pollution.

Amazonians are subject to climate shocks, but the associated health outcomes are still unclear. This study finds that rainfall variability is associated with adverse birth outcomes, especially for those most isolated and marginalized.

A quantification of PM_2.5 pollution finds that mortality risk lies disproportionately within low-income households, and that addressing their indoor air pollution sources can avert more absolute deaths, yet wealthier individuals are more responsible for the emissions.

Drylands are under pressure from climate change and population growth. This study finds the sensitivity of dryland vegetation to rainfall changing, with opposite effects in poorer and richer nations.

Natural disaster risk assessments neglect impacts on households’ well-being. A model to quantify disaster impacts more equitably shows that, in a hypothetical earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area, poorer households suffer 19% of the asset losses but 41% of the well-being losses.

Deciding on an equitable, inclusive, sustainable development path globally, instead of business as usual, is the only way out of the current crises and to avert future crises.

Coupling technological advances with sociocultural and policy changes can transform agri-food systems to address pressing climate, economic, environmental, health and social challenges. An international expert panel reports on options to induce contextualized combinations of innovations that can balance multiple goals.

Inequality—wealth concentration among few people—stimulates direct foreign investment in agriculture, leading to flex-crop expansion and associated deforestation in Latin America and Southeast Asia, as found in this econometric study.

The global rush to develop the ‘blue economy’ risks harming both the marine environment and human wellbeing. Bold policies and actions are urgently needed. We identify five priorities to chart a course towards an environmentally sustainable and socially equitable blue economy.

An estimate of the network of interactions relating to achieving the SDGs finds that tackling poverty and inequality will have positive effects on achieving all other goals.

Distinguishing types of farm workers, an analysis of Fairtrade certification in the cocoa sector of Cote d’Ivoire finds that the standard improves the livelihoods of cooperative workers but makes little difference for wage labourers working on small farms.

A scenario simulation to tackle hunger globally reveals that improving food availability for the under-nourished through better distribution has a better environmental performance than increasing overall food availability.

A balanced diet is vital for human health, and the Sustainable Development Goals codify this aim. This study finds that trade helps ensure the equitable distribution of food nutrients globally, with implications for international trade policies.

The environmental implications of meeting the needs of the poorest are under debate. By showing substantial inequalities in natural resource claims and responsibility for ecological damage globally, this study estimates and discusses the impacts of achieving just access on the Earth system.

Access to green space has been a critical, and contentious, issue for neighbourhood inequality and health outcomes. This Analysis looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic interacts with availability of nature for urban residents.

Achieving a high quality of life within the biophysical limits of the planet is a significant challenge. This study quantifies the resource use associated with meeting basic human needs, compares it to downscaled planetary boundaries for over 150 nations and finds that no country meets its citizens’ basic needs sustainably.

Most of the sustainability challenges and opportunities associated with urbanization are found in the global south. This Perspective shows the extent to which urban issues differ between the developed and developing worlds and identifies steps to re-focus the urban research system globally in view of allowing a more prominent role of urban scholarship from the global south.