Questions of social and economic class must be at the centre of our response to the climate crisis, to address the huge inequalities between the carbon footprints of the rich and poor and prevent a backlash against climate policies, the economist Thomas Piketty has said.
Regulations will be needed to outlaw goods and services that have unnecessarily high greenhouse gas emissions, such as private jets, outsized vehicles, and flights over short distances, he said in an interview with the Guardian.
Rich countries must also put in place progressive carbon taxes that take into account people’s incomes and how well they are able to reduce their emissions, as current policies usually fail to adjust for people’s real needs.
Thomas Piketty is a French economist known for his work on wealth and income inequality. He gained significant attention for his 2013 book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” which argues that the rate of return on capital in developed countries is often larger than the rate of economic growth, leading to wealth inequality. His work combines historical and statistical analysis to discuss the dynamics of inequality and proposes solutions like progressive wealth taxes to reduce these disparities.
Piketty’s work has been influential in economic and political discussions worldwide.