Small contribution, big retribution – the inequality of climate change

“People have the right to be angry,” Pakistani teenage climate activist Yusuf Baluch said to a BBC reporter. The southern and otherwise arid region of Pakistan he hails from – Balochistan – had just been ravaged by unprecedented rainfall and floods, killing 336 people, destroying or damaging over 400,000 homes, ruining 1,230 km2 of crops, and killing over half a million livestock. “Companies are still extracting fossil fuels from Balochistan, but people there have just lost their homes and have no food or shelter,” he said.

Balochistan is rich in coal, natural gas and minerals, but its people remain near the bottom of the human development index. The dominant occupations are agriculture and animal husbandry. The devastating 2022 floods in Pakistan are the perfect example of the vastly unequal impact of climate change, where those with the smallest carbon footprints are impacted the most.

The insidious relationship between poverty & climate change

You don’t have to go to the global south to see the portrayal of this edict. The recently released fifth US National Climate Assessment, which evaluates the effects of climate change on American life, states that extreme weather events mean the country suffers a disaster every three weeks, costing $1 billion. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, one of the authors of the assessment, says, “Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally.” She’s backed up by Solomon Hsiang, a climate economist at the University of California, Berkeley and a lead author of the assessment: “The research indicates that people who are lower income have more trouble adapting [to climate change] because adaptation comes at a cost.”

It isn’t surprising – running the air conditioner during extreme heat or heating during frequent cold waves is expensive, and not being able to adapt leads to ill health. The cycle continues as healthcare is out often of reach for the poor—usually a combination of lack of infrastructure, and unaffordability.

The report highlights the impact of climate change on indigenous communities, people who have lived lives tightly connected to their environment for a long time. These groups are being forced to adjust to new climate realities, which are disrupting traditional food-gathering traditions. 

The UN Conference on Trade & Development highlights the staggering disparity in CO2 emissions in the chart below. As recently as 2019, the 46 least developed countries were estimated to account for about 1.1% of total world CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and industrial processes – the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions globally. These countries are home to 14% of the world’s population, and their per capita CO2 emissions are merely 9% of the global average. Yet, over the last 50 years, 69% of worldwide deaths caused by climate-related disasters were in these countries (despite being hit by 18% of disasters).

Balancing the way forward

By hitting the poorest hardest, climate change risks both increasing existing economic inequalities and causing people to fall into poverty.

Linking Climate and Inequality
For the Zambian climate activist Veronica Mulenga, the justice implications are clear. “The climate crisis affects some parts of the planet more than others,” she says. “Historical and present-day injustices have both left black, indigenous and people-of-colour communities exposed to far greater environmental health hazards than white communities. Those most affected by climate change are black and poor communities. As a continent, we are one of the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change and we are left behind as the world progresses toward a low-carbon economy. Without taking into account those most affected, climate solutions will turn into climate exclusion.”

Climate change is a multiplier of all forms of social disadvantage, with divisions along class lines, gender, age, and much else besides.
Why climate change is inherently racist – BBC Future