<
https://www.positive.news/society/radical-change-can-lead-to-a-fairer-and-greener-world/>
"For years, the climate debate has often been framed as a choice between two
unappealing futures. Either the world carries on consuming and emitting until
the planet becomes increasingly unstable, or it cuts back so sharply that
ordinary people feel they are being asked to accept less.
A major new report from the World Inequality Lab offers a very different
possibility. It argues that humanity could raise living standards for the vast
majority of people, reduce extreme inequality and still keep global heating
below 2C by the end of the century.
The
Global Justice Report, published on Thursday, sets out what its authors
describe as a “plan for equality and prosperity within planetary boundaries”.
It is not a forecast, and it is certainly not a modest piece of policy
tinkering. It is a deliberately ambitious model of how the global economy could
be reorganised between now and 2100 so that wellbeing, equality and climate
stability are treated as part of the same project.
At its heart is the simple idea that people do not need endless material
consumption to live well. Instead, the report argues for “sufficiency” – a
shift towards shorter working hours, better health and education, cleaner
energy, changed diets, reduced pressure on land and a much narrower gap between
the very rich and everyone else.
Under the report’s central scenario, average monthly income would converge
towards about €5,000 (£4,250) per person in every country by 2100. That would
mean far faster growth in poorer regions and much slower growth in today’s
richest economies, but the authors argue that most people in wealthy countries
would still gain because income would be distributed more evenly and people
would have more time outside paid work.
Nearly 90% of the world’s population would double their monetary income by the
end of the century, according to the model. When extra leisure and the avoided
damage of runaway heating are included, the report says more than 99% of people
would be better off."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
