The devastation done to southern Malawi by Cyclone Freddy earlier this year focuses the mind as COP28 – the UN Climate Summit – convenes in Dubai today. Though the purpose of the conference is to consider how the human community can act to avert catastrophic climate change, it is becoming clear that the climate crisis is tightly interlinked with another one – the crisis of economic inequality.
An Oxfam Report, based on collaborative work with the Stockholm Environment Institute, reveals that the super-rich 1% (77 million people) were responsible for 16% of global carbon emissions in 2019. This was the same proportion as the emissions of the poorest 66% of humanity – a total of 5 billion people. Since the 1990s, the super-rich 1% burned through twice as much of the carbon budget as the poorest half of humanity combined. The damage done by the 1% is compounded by the fact that their wealth is heavily invested in fossil fuel companies, and they use their influence in politics and the media to promote the continuation of government subsidies to fossil fuel industries.
In her Foreword to the Oxfam report, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg translates its technical language into straight talk: “Climate breakdown and inequality are linked together and fuel each other. If we are to overcome one, we must overcome both…. This report reveals a perverse reality: those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are the ones who are suffering the most. And those who have done the most will likely suffer the least.”
The scandal that particularly outrages Thunberg is that: “The people most responsible for the climate crisis – mainly white, privileged men –are also the ones who have been given a leading role in getting us out of it…. How have we left the culprits in charge when there is so much at stake? Why are they in charge when time and again they have shown us that they prioritize their greed and short-term economic profits above people and planet? Is it any wonder progress is so slow?”
Reference: Oxfam, Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99%, Oxford: Oxfam International, 2023.
Thinking Mission Blog 