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Imagine a bunch of people riding their favourite roller coaster—we’re talking Behemoth or Leviathan-level here—and the person in the very front car pukes. The person in the front car pukes, but the rest of the passengers must deal with the hurling vomit.
This is what carbon inequality feels like, except in reality, the vomit is the carbon footprint of the rich that’s accelerating climate change. The passengers are those who are most disadvantaged and who must deal with the consequences.
According to a Recent studiesPublished in Nature Sustainability, emissions from the world’s richest one per cent of the population are 50 per cent larger than emissions from the world’s poorest 50 per cent. The study also showed that if one million people were lifted from poverty, global carbon emissions could rise from 1.6 percent to 2.1 percent.
Whether it’s within Canada or abroad, the emissions of the rich seem to have a negative effect on the rest of the world’s population. However, fighting poverty doesn’t have to be exclusive from fighting climate change. It’s possible to lift one billion people out of poverty by 2030, in accordance with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, according to this study. It may be necessary, for the protection of human rights and the environment.
Inequality on both national and international scales
One of the study’s authors, Benedikt Bruckner, an energy and environmental sciences master’s student at the University of Groningen located in the Netherlands, explained carbon inequality as “a measure of how carbon emissions are distributed among different people.”
This type of inequality was found to be evident at both national and international scales.
Internationally, the world’s population can be divided into global income groups. The Stockholm Environment Institute and Oxfam (a charity focusing on poverty, inequality, and injustice) came up with the idea of dividing carbon emissions between these groups. According to this study, 2015 saw total carbon emissions from the top 10% of income earners seven times greater than those from the bottom 50%. Report.
According to Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, carbon dioxide levels reached a global average concentration of 414 parts per million at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory in 2020. This is a 49% increase over the 277 parts/million recorded in 1750. These emissions trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere, induce smog, cause air pollution and contribute to the increase in extreme weather events brought about by climate change.
Klaus Hubacek, a professor of science technology and society at the University, stated that one of its primary conclusions was the report’s first conclusion. University of Groningen is that “consuming less is the only option.”
Jamie Brownlee, an environmental studies professor at Carleton University, said he couldn’t agree more. He said it’s the consumerist habits of the Western world that has led to the environmental fallout those living in developing countries are dealing with.
“The average person in a typical rich country consumes about 13 times as much as the average person in a poor country,” Brownlee said. “That has enormous environmental impacts.”
According to a Press release released by Oxfam in January, if the 10 richest men in the world were to lose 99.999 per cent of their wealth, they would still be richer than 99 per cent of the world’s population.
Despite the fact there are so many people who have been Financially disadvantaged by pandemicAccording to the press release the wealth of these 10 men has increased by twofold.
These findings are part a report called Inequality is a killerThis article reflects the stark reality that global death is caused by many forms of inequality.
Oxfam reported that inequity is responsible for the death of one person every four second.
Financial inequity is linked to a larger story in Canada. Laura Schnurr, director for climate transitions at the Tamarack InstituteClimate action is being impeded by the current housing affordability crisis. The Tamarack Institute aims to reduce poverty, improve health outcomes and strengthen communities.
“Some of these members that we’re just bringing on are telling us that they’re facing a lot of pushback locally, especially those in municipal governments [because of the housing crisis],” Schnurr said. “It’s not either or—you have to be addressing these issues simultaneously.”
Alleviating poverty: An environmental pro or con?
Bruckner and co-authors concluded, despite the rampant consumerism and large gaps in the equality and emissions of carbon, that it is possible to both bring people out poverty and reduce the inequality of carbon.
“What we see on total carbon emissions is that it will increase about a per cent and a half, maybe two,” Bruckner said. “That is really a key message because it shows we can both tackle the climate crisis and alleviate poverty.”
According to the UN, the world’s population living in extreme poverty—those with a living wage less than USD $1.90—decreased from 741 million in 2015 to 689 million in 2017. These numbers increased by 199 to 124 millions during the pandemic.
Brownlee stated that lifting these individuals above the poverty line should be treated as an environmental burden, even if it is part of larger global emissions.
“Lifting people out of poverty, which we need to do, would likely make a small impact in terms of rising consumption and rising carbon emissions,” Brownlee said. “This is nothing in comparison to what a relatively small number of the world’s richest consumers are doing in terms of their impact on the climate.”
Brownlee explained that the emissions would not only be a small reduction in global carbon emissions but could also prevent further environmental degradation in certain regions.
“Poverty is a key driver of environmental degradation,” Brownlee said. “If you look around the world—poor people in poor nations—they’re often forced to engage in practices that are harmful to the environment just to survive.”
Brownlee stated that poverty can be a result of exploitation of resources, water pollution, and air pollution. Deforestation can also be a product of poverty that’s particularly harmful to the environment. Brownlee said this is because “forests are super important carbon sinks,” or a place that absorbs more carbon than it releases.
Canada is a contributor and not a spectator
This environmental degradation in poor communities is not a problem that only the developed world countries face. These same issues are also present in Canada’s shadows of inequality.
Sherilee Harper, lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report released on Feb. 28, said that “even in the Global North, there’s increased vulnerability within our sub-populations.”
Harper claims that the COVID-19 pandemic as well as climate change have negatively affected sub-populations in Canada.
“Socioeconomic conditions where people live, services that they have access to, racism, discrimination and colonialism—all of these things factor in,” she said. “It’s the same factors that make people more vulnerable to COVID-19 that make people more vulnerable to climate change.”
Because their lives are so closely linked to the environment, the Canadian Indigenous population is one of the most vulnerable sub-populations to climate change. According to Harper, this inequality is rooted in colonialism, something the IPCC’s report also addresses.
“[Colonialism] leads to racism and environmental racism,” Harper said. “The Arctic, for instance, when sea ice starts to disappear, people’s livelihoods are severely impacted, as well as the culture and the environment that underpins their identity.”
In the Joint Committee on Climate Action’s (JCCA) annual report for 2020Weenusk First Nation was featured in this article as a northern community whose traditional harvesting methods have been put at risk due to climate change. This has led to food insecurity, and health risks.
The Weenusk First Nation is one of many federally funded Indigenous Guardian Pilot Program recipients. This program monitors the effects of climate change on traditional lands. In 2021, the Federal government announcementThis program can be supported by up to $100 million over five year (2021-2026).
According to the JCAA report, Indigenous communities can take climate leadership to protect their land. They can participate in federal programs, the carbon pricing system, and create space for intergenerational dialogue about climate change.
In terms of policy actions, Brownlee said these inequalities within Canada’s sub-populations could all be addressed by a Green New DealThis is essentially a policy or climate proposal that outlines a plan to tackle climate change.
“At its core, the [Green New Deal] is trying to respond aggressively to the climate crisis by reducing emissions, and it’s trying to accomplish that in a way that also raises living standards and tackles inequality,” Brownlee said.
A static model
In terms of Bruckner’s research, there were some limitations of the study, he explained. The main problem is that the study only considers poverty as a static model. It does not include people who are currently below or above the poverty line.
“[This model] isn’t exactly how poverty delegation works out there in reality because there are a lot of different policies that can have influence on us,” Bruckner said. “But it gives us a good estimation of what will happen.”
The model is static because it only considers poverty in a monetary sense. It focuses on expenditure and assumes that extreme poverty is defined by $1.90 per day.
“Of course, poverty is a multi-dimensional problem. You can have energy, poverty, educational poverty, et cetera,” Bruckner said. “We’re not fully able to account for these other measures of poverty as well.”
As the IPCC’s report explained, “human vulnerability to climate change is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that is often influenced by historic development processes, such as structures that originated with colonization.”
Bruckner explained that while the study uses expenditure survey data to track the consumption patterns of middle-class, and poor populations, it does not accurately reflect richer populations.
“They usually don’t take part in those surveys,” he said. “They don’t necessarily like to show their consumption patterns.”
Looking ahead
There are many unknowns about carbon emissions and how the future will unfold. But as the IPCC’s latest report explained, much attention needs to be given to vulnerable populations because it is directly affecting people’s livelihoods.
According to the report, primary concerns include bodily health, food security and productivity, rising temperatures, droughts, and food security.
“Of greatest concern are people whose development context is compromised by war, conflict and extreme poverty and inequality, such as refugee populations and displaced people,” the report stated.
Harper says that the next IPCC report will be released in April. Harper stated that the next IPCC report will be released in April. ReportThe topics covered include emission trends.
While there’s still a long way to go in improving the global rollercoaster that is carbon inequality, local stakeholders are taking steps to smooth the ride.
In February, the Tamarack Institute launched a 10-month-long program called the Tamarack Institute’s The Climate Transitions Cohort. Schnurr stated that the program will address climate action using a justice and equitable lens to help communities across Canada. The program currently has 19 participating communities, with Ottawa being one of them.
Nathaniel Sneyd Dewar & Jacob Tarasofsky were two Ottawa Energy Collective coordinators who applied to this program due inequitable climate challenges.
“Energy poverty is a real problem that especially affects a cold city like Ottawa, where poor building energy retention cripples the vulnerable with additional heating costs,” they wrote.
The program will be offered over the course 2022 and will include monthly workshops, coaching, peer-learning, coaching, and working groups. The goal is to facilitate a just transition in Ottawa’s climate.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
