The climate crisis has begun to disrupt human societies by severely affecting the very foundations of human livelihood and social organisation. Climate impacts are not equally distributed across the world: on average, low- and middle-income countries suffer greater impacts than their richer counterparts.
At the same time, the climate crisis is also marked by significant inequalities within countries.
Recent research reveals a high concentration of global greenhouse gas emissions among a relatively small fraction of the population, living in emerging and rich countries. In addition, vulnerability to numerous climate impacts is strongly linked to income and wealth, not just between countries but also within them.
The aim of this report is twofold.
• It endeavours first to shed light on these various dimensions of climate inequality in a systematic and detailed analysis, focusing on low- and middle-income countries in particular.
• It then builds on these insights, together with additional empirical work and interviews with experts, to suggest pathways to development cooperation,
and tax and social policies that tackle climate inequalities at their core.
To date, calls for a sustainable, post-pandemic recovery seem largely to have gone unanswered. The years 2022-2021 saw economic activity bounce back sharply after the global recession induced by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
• In 2020, global emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases decreased by 5.2% only to attain an all-time high in 2021 in the largest annual surge in carbon emissions ever observed.
• The strong co-movement of global GDP and carbon emissions (respective growth rates of 5.9% and 6% between 2020 and 2021) shows that economic output and greenhouse gas emissions remain far from being decoupled in global production processes (International Energy Agency, 2021).
• Almost simultaneously, the 6th IPCC assessment report warned that irreversible climate over-shoot will be inevitable if global carbon emissions do not peak and then begin a persistent reduction between 2020 and 2025 (IPCC, 2022).
• Meanwhile, the year 2022 brought about another significant increase in carbon emissions. With rising gas-to-coal switching, driven by the war in Ukraine, the required reversal in carbon emissions will remain a serious challenge in the near future.
• In the years since the signing of the Paris accord in 2015, global carbon emissions have grown by an average of 0.8% per year.
• In contrast, the rate of change necessary to stay below 1.5◦C (with a probability of 67%) is estimated at -8% per year (Liu et al., 2022).
At the same time, the year 2022 brutally uncovered the reality of destabilizing climatic conditions.
• The mega-floods that hit Pakistan in August 2022 were preceded by a severe heat wave and drought which reduced the capacity of the soils to absorb the excess rainfall and melt-water from the countrys disappearing glaciers.
• There is no doubt that the climate crisis has begun to materialize. Even if we can limit global warming to 1.5◦C, there will be sustained consequences for eco-systems and socio-economic systems.
• These include reduced food and water security in many regions of the world due to more frequent and intense extreme weather events.
• Reduced agricultural output contributes to increased food price volatility, thereby putting low-income households at serious risk of food insecurity.

Written by WID.world / The World Inequality Database (WID.world) aims to provide open and convenient access to the most extensive available database on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries.