Publication:
The Climate Implications of Ending Global Poverty

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dc.contributor.authorWollburg, Philip
dc.contributor.authorHallegatte, Stephane
dc.contributor.authorMahler, Daniel Gerszon
dc.date.accessioned2023-02-27T19:39:43Z
dc.date.accessioned2023-03-06T16:38:41Z
dc.date.available2023-02-27T19:39:43Z
dc.date.available2023-03-06T16:38:41Z
dc.date.issued2023-02
dc.description.abstractPrevious studies have explored potential conflicts between ending poverty and limiting global warming, by focusing on the carbon emissions of the world’s poorest. This paper instead focuses on economic growth as the driver of poverty alleviation and estimates the emissions associated with the growth needed to eradicate poverty. With this framing, eradicating poverty requires not only increasing the consumption of poor people, but also the consumption of non-poor people in poor countries. Even in this more pessimistic framing, the global emissions increase associated with eradicating extreme poverty is small, at 2.37 gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide in 2050, or 4.9 percent of 2019 global emissions. These additional emissions would not materially affect the global climate change challenge: global emissions would need to be reduced by 2.08 gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide per year, instead of the 2.0 gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide per year needed in the absence of any extreme poverty eradication. Lower inequality, higher energy efficiency, and decarbonization of energy can significantly ease this trade-off: assuming the best historical performance in all countries, the additional emissions for poverty eradication are reduced by 90 percent. Therefore, the need to eradicate extreme poverty cannot be used as a justification for reducing the world’s climate ambitions. When trade-offs exist, the eradication of extreme poverty can be prioritized with negligible emissions implications. The estimated emissions of eradicating poverty are 15.3 percent of 2019 emissions with the lower-middle-income poverty line at $3.65 per day and or 45.7 percent of 2019 emissions with the $6.85 upper-middle-income poverty line. The challenge to align the world’s development and climate objectives is not in reconciling extreme poverty alleviation with climate objectives but in providing middle-income standards of living in a sustainable manner.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099557002242323911/IDU0bbf17510061a9045530b57a0ccaba7a1dc79
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-10318
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/39475
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Research Working Papers;10318
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subjectPOVERTY
dc.subjectCLIMATE CHANGE
dc.subjectGREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
dc.subjectINEQUALITY
dc.subjectENVIRONMENT AND POVERTY
dc.subjectCO2 EMISSION GOALS
dc.subjectPOVERTY AND CLIMATE AMBITIONS
dc.titleThe Climate Implications of Ending Global Povertyen
dc.typeWorking Paperen
dc.typeDocument de travailfr
dc.typeDocumento de trabajoes
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleThe Climate Implications of Ending Global Poverty
okr.date.disclosure2023-02-24
okr.date.doiregistration2025-04-10T11:24:51.746852Z
okr.date.lastmodified2023-02-24T00:00:00Zen
okr.doctypeWorking Papers
okr.doctypeWorking Papers::Policy Research Working Papers
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099557002242323911/IDU0bbf17510061a9045530b57a0ccaba7a1dc79
okr.guid099557002242323911
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-10318
okr.identifier.externaldocumentumIDU-bbf17510-61a9-4553-b57a-ccaba7a1dc79
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum34008886
okr.identifier.reportWPS10318
okr.importedtrueen
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099557002242323911/pdf/IDU0bbf17510061a9045530b57a0ccaba7a1dc79.pdfen
okr.topicMacroeconomics and Economic Growth::Climate Change Economics
okr.topicPublic Sector Development::Climate Change Policy and Regulation
okr.topicPoverty Reduction::Poverty Reduction Strategies
okr.topicPoverty Reduction::Poverty, Environment and Development
okr.topicEnvironment::Carbon Policy and Trading
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