Climate Goals At Risk As Global Inequality Widens, Top Economists Warn UN

Failure to tackle the widening gulf between the world's rich and poor will entrench poverty and increase the risk of climate breakdown, a group of more than 200 leading economists has warned.

- Larry Elliott

In a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the World Bank president, Ajay Banga, the signatories from 67 countries call on the two bodies to do more to reverse the sharpest increase in global inequality since the second world war.

Those backing the "call for action" include the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, New Zealand's former prime minister Helen Clark, and the economists Jayati Ghosh, Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty.

Reducing inequality by 2030 was one of the 17 UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) agreed by the international community in 2015, but the letter seen by the Guardian says urgent action is needed in light of the differing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on rich and poor.

Noting that rising inequality has been "largely ignored", the letter says the current means for assessing progress in tackling the problem - faster income growth for the poorest 40% than for the population as a whole -fails to take into account the concentration of income and wealth among the super-rich.