Did you know that the demand for natural resources has overshot in August since the beginning of the year of what the planet can regenerate in the remaining 2020?
This is due to the current production and management of resources, goods, and services which have also contributed to increasing inequality.
Progress, economic growth, and generation of wealth are the factors that have often been linked to the exploitation of nature and its resources. However, these resources are neither produced nor consumed equally around the world.
Inequality has played a major role in the growth of the poorest countries, the consumption of resources by the richest countries, and their dependency on fossil fuels. Among many other circumstances of increasing inequality, are the noticeable effects of climate change in poor countries with fewer resources.
Although, the reality is that we all share the same planet and it’s our responsibility to look after it. This can be done by emphasizing sustainable advancement to our government, business, and citizens that includes promotion of economic progress which manufactures equitable wealth for everyone without inflicting any kind of disadvantage to the environment for instance carbon neutrality.
Climate inequality
“Climate change has made the poor countries poorer” extracted from the 2020 World Social Report: Inequality in a rapidly changing world. It’s further stated that if no immediate action is taken, in the next ten years, millions of people might subsist in poverty.
According to research done by Stanford University, there is a twenty-five percent larger gap between the economic output of the world’s richest and poorest countries today than it would have been without global warming.
Rising temperature is directly proportional to inequality. For instance, sixty-nine million people will be imperiled by natural disasters like floods in coastal areas due to the alarming rise in sea levels and four hundred ten million people will be exposed to drought due to lack of water resources.
Moreover, climate change is particularly affecting tropical countries. For instance, in countries like Norway & Sweden, the temperature changes resulting in growing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere have uplifted cool countries, at the same time depressing the economic growth in tropical countries such as India and Nigeria.
According to the World Bank, the profit made from exploiting non-renewable resources (minerals and fossil fuels) and over-exploiting forests contribute to 2.5% of world economic output that is USD two trillion.
This figure increases up to 10.7% in developing countries, such as the Republic of Congo owes 54.9% of GDP to the extraction of these resources.
As stated by the World Economic Forum (WEF), this income is constantly linked to conflict and corruption instead of developing long-term institutions and human capital.
Further, according to the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) report, the carbon footprints (the relationship between human demand for existing resources and the ecological capacity to generate them) of the EU (European Union) the Member States and various other countries speculates that “Europeans live as if they had 2.8 planets at their disposal.”
New sustainable economic business model
The government and institutions are also now in favor of a sustainable equitable planet. They have already begun to take steps to achieve an emission-neutral economy to conserve biodiversity and build an equitable and resilient community.
The new economic model needs governments and businesses to recognize the immense capacity of investing in nature. For instance, the Green Deal is an agreement between the public and private sectors towards green growth. It has fifty definite action measures to combat climate change and its final purpose is for Europe to attain carbon neutrality by 2050, singling out economic growth from the usage of the planet’s resources and lessening emissions by up to 55 % over the next ten years.
Investment is required in developing countries and communities, where oftentimes the most threatened habitats thrive. Also, inequality means no one is excluded, and adopting different forms of generation and consumption must be done adequately.
Conclusion
Climate inequality is the relationship between climate change and social inequality which is depicted by a vicious cycle, whereby disadvantaged groups suffer bitterly from the adverse effects of climate change, resulting in greater subsequent inequality.
However, In recent years, global economic growth has pushed millions out of extreme poverty and lowered inequalities between countries. Regardless of this unmanaged climate change can set back this progress by undermining poverty eradication measures worldwide and affecting the poorest communities of our society.
Moreover, according to the world bank report, an additional sixty-eight to one hundred thirty-five million people could be dragged into poverty by 2030 due to uncertain climate change and unusual temperature rise.
Inequality between countries and their communities may become even more evident if we do not do anything to suppress the effects of climate change. Everyone must build a sustainable and resilient planet so that we can limit climate imbalance.
It’s time we face reality and discuss more often some of the most important issues like climate change, how it’s bitterly impacted by our lifestyle and how we can provide a solution for it.
It is our only option to protect and provide our upcoming generations with a much safer and sound planet.