CPP at IIMB launches ‘Inequality Conversations’; first talk in the series on Jan 31st by Dr Arpit Shah on Environmental Inequality

The Centre for Public Policy at IIM Bangalore hosted the first lecture in the series, ‘Inequality Conversations’, on Jan 31st (Monday).

The first of the talks, on ‘Environmental Inequality’, was delivered by Dr. Arpit Shah, faculty in the Public Policy area at IIM Bangalore.

“Carbon emission inequalities are important to talk about right now, with atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at their highest level ever, and with species becoming extinct at 100 times their ‘normal’ or natural rates,” Dr Shah said.

He discussed the findings of the carbon emissions chapter of the recently released World Inequality Report 2022. “The findings have important implications for policymaking. The report systematically quantities inter- and intra-nation carbon emission inequalities and their linkages with global wealth and income inequalities. The findings are stark – extreme wealth and extreme carbon emissions go hand-in-hand,” he explained. The fact is that higher income individuals emit more carbon than lower-income individuals, with the top 10% of emitters contributing to 50% of all carbon emissions. In fact, the top 0.01% of all emitters emit almost 400 times the global average.

Dr Shah pointed out that the relationship between income/wealth and carbon emissions holds true for India as well. “While India as a country is a low carbon emitter (1/3rd the global average), the top 1% in India emit 5 times the global average, which is much higher than that required to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. Large inequalities in emissions imply that policies should target wealthy polluters more. So far, policies have not done enough in this regard,” he said.

The Centre for Public Policy has lined up several more conversations in this series. So stay tuned!