Hi ,

Record-breaking rainfall and flooding in Nepal, Central Europe, and Central and West Africa, as well as the impact of Hurricane Helene in the US, underscores the unpredictable and extreme weather that the climate crisis is already creating. But there's no such thing as a natural disaster. From the causes to the impact, these disasters are deeply bound up with our inequality crisis.

For many Americans in particular, the fact that Hurricane Helene reached so far inland (over 250 miles, nearly the width of Great Britain) was alarming. Asheville, a city in North Carolina that was among the worst-hit, had been promoted as a haven from climate change's impact. Several cities in the US have begun to do this, claiming their mild climates and positioning makes them a place you should buy property or invest in. This pitch is, of course, aimed at those with a certain amount of wealth – existing residents who struggle with the cost of housing may justly fear that climate migrants will outbid them for scarce housing. Others, without that wealth, will stay in uninsurable homes in increasingly dangerous areas.

This is the kind of inequality that the climate crisis will accelerate all over the world: the richest, creating half of global emissions, will see only 3% of the relative income loss, while the poorest half of the world will suffer 3/4 of the costs. Asheville itself has a higher poverty rate than the US average, and discussions about how to rebuild and especially how to insure homes in high-risk areas will be dictated by the interests of the richest.

The same is true on a global level. Governance of the climate crisis is characterised by extreme inequality, according to a recent study in Nature: highly influential countries are unwilling to act because they're not exposed to the worst consequences, while the most exposed countries struggle to be heard.

We urgently need to correct this balance. The good news is that efforts to make societies more equal go hand in hand with tackling the climate crisis. For example, wealth taxes, as well as raising revenue that can go towards green investment, are taxes on the most highly polluting demographics and the most highly polluting behaviours. As Profs Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett showed in their recent update to The Spirit Level, more equal nations tend to have the greatest focus on reducing carbon emissions.

There's nothing natural about climate disasters or about extreme wealth. We need to take action on both.