Earth for All summary

In India, a family lose their farm. Recent rice harvests have been ravaged by drought and the profits from their meager harvests have been eroded by multinational agro-companies undercutting the sale price for rice crops. Drought-resistant rice seeds are available, but the family simply can’t afford to purchase them.

Meanwhile, in California, a billionaire boards his private jet for a 15-minute flight between two cities.

There’s something wrong with this picture.

Gross wealth inequality is one of the most pressing problems facing our planet. The richest billion people in the world consume 72 percent of the planet’s resources. The poorest 1.2 billion, most of whom reside in low-income countries, consume 1 percent. Moreover, high-income countries cause the most carbon emissions, yet low-income countries shoulder a disproportionate share of the negative effects of these emissions. Outsourcing production to low-income countries has seen wealthy corporations offload polluting manufacturing processes to the developing world.

Until low-income countries prosper economically, they will continue to struggle to implement the green technologies necessary to combat climate change that is, for them, a particularly urgent problem. Low-income countries, and indeed low-income communities within high-income countries, need a pathway out of poverty. The problem? They can’t simply emulate high-income countries which became prosperous through ecologically ruinous industrialization.

Instead, the global economic system needs a rethink.

Currently, the IMF regulates a global debt structure that sees countries borrowing and lending to each other with substantial interest. Many low-income countries are held back by massive debt obligations. Repayments – funds that could otherwise be reinvested into social and ecological initiatives – are estimated to cost some African countries 4 percent of GDP a year. This has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which saw debt in low-income countries soar to $86 billion.

A comprehensive global debt relief package would immediately improve the economies of low-income countries. Debt weakens local currency and negatively impacts liquidity – lifting debts would strengthen currencies and free up cash to invest in social initiatives and local industry. A global Green New Deal – one that legislates against corporations investing in polluting industries in the developing world – would incentivize all economies to switch to green technologies. A carbon tax levied squarely at carbon producers – crucially, one that distinguishes between the country or corporation responsible for emissions and the country where emissions are recorded – should reduce the global carbon footprint. If intellectual property laws which protect the patents on new green technologies were relaxed, poorer countries would be able to swiftly implement ecological, sustainable farming and manufacturing processes.