#10: Carbon Inequality, Natural Disasters, Apple vs Mother Nature
Hello there, it’s Àlex, Marc & Miquel, authors of the 3X Newsletter, home of the impact society.
We are here to inspire some of our brightest citizens to write the next chapters of our history by scaling companies or working on projects that help solve society’s biggest problems, while also living environmentally conscious lives.
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One reflection
Carbon Inequality
Summer is gone in the northern hemisphere. And though summer is always wonderful and full of life, this one will also be remembered by its unprecedented heat waves, earthquakes, wild fires and floods. A tough reminder that we must act on climate change. Now.
As we think about these catastrophes, we can’t help but wonder: are we all equal in the eyes of climate change? Do we all hold the same responsibility? And, are we all going to suffer equally?
Responsibility
We already knew that there are variations across countries and continents, but the differences in emissions per person are staggering:
High-income countries emit 30x more per person than low-incomes ones (~10Tn per person and year vs 0.3Tn)
The top 5% earning people are responsible for ~40% of total emissions, while the bottom half only account for 6%
The richest 1% of people are responsible for twice as many carbon emissions as the poorest half of the world’s population. Read that again, slowly
The “Dinosaur graph” of Carbon Inequality:
Suffering
And yet, the poorest countries are the ones that will suffer more the impacts of climate change with 120Mn people at risk of falling back into poverty. It is also worth noting that 38 out of the 44 countries with high climate risk are low-income states.
Why? Mainly due to 3 reasons:
Adaptative capacity: Rich countries have the means to reduce the risk through better infrastructure, more resilient agriculture, etc. Also, developing economies exist under high dependence on natural resources to sustain their livelihoods
Exposure: The 74 lowest income countries have suffered 8x more natural disasters than their developed counterparts in the last 10 years. They tend to sit into already more extreme climates with more fragile soils, or higher existing temperatures, becoming more prone to climate disasters (e.g., Sub-Saharan droughts, Asian water shortages, etc.)
Carbon inequality
So this is the reality, what some call “Carbon inequality”: rich countries and people are (a lot) more responsible for the climate crisis and yet, the poor countries and people are to suffer most from it.
So, what should we do about it?
Re-focus consumption & investment: As stated in our previous post (The Degrowth Myth), expecting the “richest” to reduce consumption is both naïve and dangerous. We’d risk losing the resources and technology we need to finance the climate transition. Instead we should focus on “green growth” (e.g., electric vehicles, clean energy, alternative protein sources, etc.)
Adding value in developing economies: In fact, developing countries hold the key to a Net Zero future as they hold the majority of mineral reserves (e.g., graphite, lithium, etc.) required for “green” technologies like solar. Ensuring that those countries exploit such reserves driving value for local citizens will be critical
Climate adaptation support: Not many great news came out from COP26, yet 600Mn$ were pledged into helping vulnerable people bolster resilience to the worsening impacts of climate change. Insufficient, yes, but a good place to start
Climate justice is social justice and we can’t stand still in a world where a few pollute and many suffer.
Food for Thought
Natural disasters set to increase by 40% in a 15 year span. Can we continue looking the other way?
Impact stories
Greece’s agriculture hub lost a quarter of its crop production to two days of rain. After a summer of scorching heat and devastating wildfires, unprecedented rainfall—the worst since Greece started keeping records in 1930—is destroying lives, property, and agriculture in the country.
Microsoft is paying 20Mn$ to carbon-capture 0.25% of its annual CO2 emissions. Microsoft agreed to purchase up to 315,000 metric tons of CO2 removal over a decade with Heirloom, a carbon capture startup
Apple has just released its first carbon neutral product. Apple's yearly product release keynote update, which portrays Mother Nature sitting at a meeting with the Apple team discussing its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, represents a significant shift in the way Apple approaches sustainability messaging.
One quote
"The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share."
~Lady Bird Johnson
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