Climate Change Hits Developing Nations Harder

It is upsetting when one compares the incredible progress made in the last few decades towards global equality to the possibility of the impending threat of climate change which dashes any hope for an equal world. The Climate Change and Social Inequality report published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in Oct. 2017 shows that progress towards a future free of inequality has slowed due to climate change. From 1961-2010, the wealth gap between the wealthiest 10 percent of people in the world and the poorest 10 percent was 25 percent larger than it would have been without climate change. This trend will only continue if proper precautions are not taken.

Consequently, extreme temperatures, flooding and wildfire are all natural disasters that  become more frequent due to climate change. Any of these could destroy food supply beyond restoration, effectively killing the livelihoods of those in countries where the economy centers around agriculture. These crops may have been exported and been staples in the diets of many cultures, such as Indian wheat and African maize. Nearly one in six species may go extinct because of the changing environment. Such loss would be detrimental to the biodiversity and food sources of countries around the world. Severe droughts are leading to a scarce water supply. There are also several more widely used crops at risk, such as coffee and cocoa.

These issues mostly impact developing nations, which tend to emit significantly less compared to more industrialized ones. They depend on cheap fossil fuels to run their economies, and with green energy on the rise and a lack of action to lighten the burden of fossil fuels on the economies of developing countries, a potential transition to renewable sources would be much more difficult. In communities within countries where the workforce is primarily focused around the production and harvesting of fossil fuels, many jobs would then have to be reoriented to greener fields. The workers in these industries may not possess adequate skill sets to efficiently make this transfer of work fields, resulting in a diminished workforce and higher unemployment rates in major oil-producing countries.

What is almost as sad as the diminishing food and water supplies is the fact that many developed nations will ignore these issues until they directly and tangibly affect them. Some of the most developed countries have even become wealthier as a result of climate change.

All of these factors culminate in one reality: the chasm of inequality between developing countries and developed countries is widened by both the effects of climate change and the policies that are put into effect to try and combat it.

So far in this piece, I have examined the effects of climate change at the global level. However, climate change has dangerous effects on a smaller scale as well. More impoverished communities that are initially more dependent on cheap fossil fuels have a harder time adapting to green energy initiatives and adjusting their economies accordingly. Not to mention that underprivileged citizens tend to live in areas more prone to experience the effects of climate change. However, due to financial constraints, it is even harder for them to recover, resulting in a self-fulfilling cycle between inequality and climate change. Especially as wealthier citizens tend to hold more political power, public policy often fails to consider the majority of the public. Policies may be swayed to benefit more wealthy, powerful corporations.

Some potential policies which may be implemented include a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade emissions trading system. Such laws might institute a quota of carbon emissions on different companies. Nonetheless, these regulations also exacerbate pre-existing inequalities, because more affluent companies may be able to buy more carbon permits from poorer companies. Policy changes need to be made rapidly, but this does not change the fact that they still significantly impact many economies both within and across countries, whether for better or for worse, and would substantially change the global power dynamic.

Environmental issues caused by climate change must certainly be addressed, but one must not lose sight of the actual people affected by the policies put in place. Nor should one forget how different demographic groups and countries are affected, along with the global population. We need to stop looking at this from the perspective of a developed nation, for whom the harshest effects of climate change may be farther off, and start considering those already in stressful situations. For them, direct action towards climate change could mean life or death.