Global inequality prevents effective climate protection in the land sector

12/08/2022 - Land-based climate protection in line with the Paris Agreement can only succeed by overcoming global inequality, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). This requires a shift towards healthier nutrition, less food waste and lower population growth. It is also necessary to put a price on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry at the global level.
Global inequality prevents effective climate protection in the land sector
Fields. Photo: Yulian Alexeyev/Unsplash

Regulating greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry in high-income countries alone is not enough to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. This is because the countries of the global South generally have a higher share of these emissions than those of the North. Therefore, pricing of emissions from agriculture and forestry must be extended to the global level and a global transformation towards inclusive socio-economic development must take place. The combination of these two elements simultaneously offers the greatest co-benefits in terms of water use, nitrogen losses, nutrition and health.
Effective climate policies may only be implemented in high-income countries. If inequalities are reduced, both the Paris climate targets and the UN Sustainable Development Goals could be achieved in a better way - especially in the Global South. Stronger international cooperation is needed for this, according to the PIK study.

Article:

Florian Humpenöder, Alexander Popp, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Anton Orlov, Michael Gregory Windisch, Inga Menke, Julia Pongratz, Felix Havermann, Wim Thiery, Fei Luo, Patrick v. Jeetze, Jan Philipp Dietrich, Hermann Lotze-Campen, Isabelle Weindl & Quentin Lejeune (2022): "Overcoming global inequality is critical for land-based mitigation in line with the Paris Agreement". Nature Communications. [DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-35114-7]

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