Research is wrong – lacks unified and direct focus on inequality

Some researchers have earlier noted that climate change aggravated inequality, and they provided evidence in support of this claim. There are, however, two weaknesses in this discussion so far. First, the evidences are often indirect and not focused on inequality. The implications regarding inequality are presented as an afterthought, so to speak. Second, the evidences presented are generally of scatter-shot character and there is no connection among them. This paper tries to overcome these weaknesses – particularly the second one – by presenting a unifying conceptual framework for discussing and studying the relationship between climate change and inequality. It shows that the relationship between climate change and social inequality is characterized by a vicious cycle, whereby initial inequality makes disadvantaged groups suffer disproportionately from the adverse effects of climate change, resulting in greater subsequent inequality. The paper identifies three channels through which the above process unfolds. First, inequality increases the exposure of the disadvantaged social groups to the “adverse effects of climate change” (“climate hazards,” for short). Second, given the exposure level, inequality increases the disadvantaged groups’ susceptibility to damages caused by climate hazards. Third, inequality decreases these groups’ relative ability to cope with and recover from the damages they suffer. The paper presents evidence supporting each of these three channels.