Presentation at the Environmental Audit Committee of the UK Parliament, British Academy, London, 15 Oct 2014

1. Environmental Audit Committee
British Academy, London
15. October 2014
Benjamin Hennig
University of Oxford
INEQUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

2. Global Inequality
24 of the richest countries of the world (by GDP per capita) which are home to at least two million people,
they are home to 13% of the world’s population, and almost 50% of world income (GDP)

3. Global Population
Japan
Germany
UK
France
Spain
USA
This is a reprojection of the population distribution, showing where most people are living

4. Global Wealth
UK
The world resized according to each country’s gross domestic product
Japan
Germany
France
Spain
USA

5. Inequality in Britain
2010: By wealth Britain has become more
unequal that at any time since 1918. This is
not least because of continuously rising
income inequalities.
Health inequalities between areas surpass the
last maxima recorded in the 1930s.

6. Health Inequalities
Data source: Seymour, J. (for UNED-UK) (2001) Poverty in Plenty: A Human Development Report for
the UK London: Earthscan Publications Ltd. (data included in the appendix)

7. Understanding Inequality
Inequality can be explained by looking at the
ratio of the share of income from the richest
10% to the poorest 10% of the population.
In the UK this ratio was 13∙8 in 2009
This ratio was revealed by the UNDP in their world report 2009 (table M)

8. Inequality in the rich world
17.7 Singapore
15.9 United States
15.0 Portugal
13∙8 United Kingdom
13.4 Israel
12.5 Australia
12.5 New Zealand
11.6 Italy
10.3 Spain
10.2 Greece
9.4 Canada
9.4 Ireland
9.2 Netherlands
9.1 France
9.0 Switzerland
8.2 Belgium
8.1 Denmark
7.3 Slovenia
6.9 Austria
6.9 Germany
6.2 Sweden
6.1 Norway
5.6 Finland
4.5 Japan
Japan
4∙5
Germany
6∙9
UK
13∙8
France
9∙1
Spain
10∙3
USA
15∙9

9. The 1%
Second largest growth worldwide in million-dollar-wealth
households between 2013 and 2014 in the
UK
It has a 30.5% rise in millionaires in a year, compared
with a 14.5% rise in France, a 14.1% rise in
Germany and a 13.0% rise in the USA
Predicted global wealth is rising from $263 trillion to
$369 trillion, or by 40% between now and 2019
By 2019 there will be 53 million million-dollar-households,
a rise of 53% in just five years
This data was released in the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2014

10. The 1%
In otherwise affluent countries where the
richest 1% take the most
child poverty is common,
children do worse at school,
medium household incomes are lower along
with average living standards,
housing is of poorer quality
and greater precarity and health suffers as
much warranted anxiety rises
This data was released in the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2014

11. Super-rich
Wealth inequalities are far greater than income
inequalities: The richest 10% in London have
wealth which is 273 times greater than that of
the poorest 10%. The wealth of the 1000
richest in the UK is even greater: 359 times
higher than that of the richest 10%.
Calculated from figures provided by the Hills enquiry and Sunday Times, 2010

12. The 10 richest in London hold over a quarter (28.7%) of all the wealth of the 1000 richest on the British Isles

13. Unequal London
Calculated from Census figures 1981 to 2011
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1980 1990 2000 2010
Wealthy
Middle
Poor
current estimate

14. Effects of inequality
Nobody can spend as much money as the super
rich have! You might then think that there is
less waste if wealth is distributed like this.
Is that true?
You might think this isn’t real wealth, and
people aren’t really that poor. So how do
inequality and a consumption correlate?
Isn’t it better to have the rich as custodians of most of the national wealth?

15. The effects of the effects...
of inequality
We are going to look at
Meat consumption
Water consumption
Waste production
Number of Flights
Ecological impact
in each of the most affluent countries.
You might think: "Surely, if a few people hold most of the wealth we all consume less?"

16. Inequality and meat
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Japan
Germany
France
Spain
UK
USA
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Meat consumption in kg per year per person
Inequality
Not if you are concerned about how much meat we farm and consume

17. Inequality and water
8.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
Japan
Germany
France
Spain
UK
USA
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
water in m3 per year per person
Inequality
Not if you are concerned about how much water we use (apart from the UK!)

18. 900
800
700
600
500
400
300
Inequality and waste
Japan
Germany France
Spain
UK
USA
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Inequality
Not if you are concerned about how much waste we each produce
Singapore
1100
Municipal waste collected (kg per capita per year)

19. Inequality and flights
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Japan
Germany
Canada
France
Spain
UK
USA
Italy
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
60
Norway
Ireland
New Zealand
annual aircraft departures per thousand people
Inequality
Not if you are concerned about how many flights we each take (on average)

20. Inequality and ecology
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Inequality
Ecological footprint in global hectares per capita
Japan
Germany
France
Spain
UK
USA
Singapore
Not if you are concerned about how many planets we might need to exist:
An Ecological Footprint of 2.1 global hectares per capita equals one-planet living

21. Data sources
UNDP/FAO http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=126
UNDP/LPR http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=104
UNSD http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ENVIRONMENT/qindicators.htm
World Bank World Development Indicators 2005 (IS.AIR.DPRT)
WWF Living Planet Index 2008
More and more geographical data is becoming available, often for the first time.

22. Ecological impact of the rich
How does this relate to the ecological impact of
those 24 countries on the globe as a whole, and
how do the poorer nations compare – to what
extent does global inequality have an impact on
a sustainable future of the planet as well as
inequalities within the rich world?
The poor in unequal rich countries consume more than in more equal countries

23. Ecological Footprint
The map shows the ecological footprint (EF), a measure of the resources used per head in each country. A
EF of 2.1 global hectares per capita equals one-planet living on the basis that everyone is entitled to the
same amount of the planet’s natural resources. - Source: New Economics Foundation, Happy Planet Index

24. Ecological Footprint
When we draw the same map upon the world population cartogram it may not initially appear to be so bad.
The countries that consume too much contain fewer people, so not such a problem?
However...This map is misleading – we need to reproject the basemap again for a fair picture

25. Ecological Footprint
Japan
Germany
UK
France
Spain
USA
If we reproject the globe again so that the area of each grid cell is drawn in proportion to the ecological
impact of the people who live in that area, then we see that most of the damage is being caused by the rich
world and more of that (per capita) by the most unequal countries of the rich world (which China services).

26. Conclusion
“We should … dethrone the idea that
maximising the growth in measured prosperity,
GDP per capita, should be an explicit objective
of economic and social policy.”
Adair Turner, Chair of the UK Financial Services Authority, 2007

27. (Un)Happy Humanity?
Source: Prosperity without growth? Sustainable Development
Commission (2009)

28. (Un)Happy Humanity?

29. Conclusion
To consume less, you need to feel
you have more in common with other people.
If success is about having a lot of money,
success is about consuming more and wasting more.
Consumption by everybody is less
in countries where everyone is more equal.
All affluent countries need to reduce their levels of
consumption by reducing social inequalities.
Through their dominance of global media and marketing
the rest of the world usually looks up towards richer
countries.
What example are we providing?

30. Thanks for your attention
Benjamin Hennig
University of Oxford
benjamin.hennig@ouce.ox.ac.uk - http://www.viewsoftheworld.net