A Warming South Asia, A Widening Inequality Gap

Climate change and events like super El-Nino do not see borders! The smog affects both Delhi and Lahore.  These challenges are common and will require common solutions. 

Along with its climate toll, the wealth concentration is also growing in Asia. Staggeringly, 78% of billionaire investments are in high climate impact industries. Asian billionaires, on average, emit in less than 1 minute more carbon through their investments than a person in the poorest half of South Asia emits in an entire year.  The richest 0.1% in South Asia emit 200 times more CO2 per person than the poorest half. 

According to Oxfam's analysis based on World Bank data, 87% of the population (1.7 billion people) in South Asia is exposed to at least one climate hazard, including floods, heatwaves, cyclones and agricultural drought.82% of the South Asia population is exposed to heatwaves

With each new climate shock, the gap between rich and poor widens.  The wealthy can buffer themselves with better housing, insurance, savings, and private security. People in poverty lose homes, livelihoods and savings with every shock. With each successive disaster, and as their frequency and intensity increase, their capacity to recover weakens further and the inequality gap widens.

Action on climate and on inequality need to go hand in hand. Another future remains possible if bold political choices are made to curb excessive wealth and corporate power. We need urgent action in South Asia to curb the carbon-polluting emissions of the super-rich. 

We need far more money the enable our countries to adapt to the increase in frequency and intensity of hazards. We urgently need to set timebound national plans to reduce economic inequality.  

Creating a more equal world would enable emissions to fall rapidly, food systems to become fairer and more resilient, and public systems to protect people from crisis and adapt to the effects of climate change. We need investment in the resilience, rights and livelihoods of the majority of people.