Veranstaltung Mitgliedshochschulen
This lecture explores the critical interrelationship between climate change and economic inequality through recent empirical and model-based assessments. Multiple integrated assessment models demonstrate that climate change exacerbates existing economic disparities both within and across countries. Key findings show that without additional climate action (3.6°C warming scenario), global inequality could increase significantly by 2100, with the Gini index rising by up to six percentage points in vulnerable regions like Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate impacts are regressive, disproportionately affecting lower-income populations, while wealthier households experience lower relative damages. Importantly, policies aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target could reduce long-term inequality increases by approximately two-thirds. Though such policies might slightly increase inequality in the short term, this effect can be counterbalanced through equal per-capita redistribution mechanisms, potentially lowering the Gini index by almost two points. The research provides robust evidence that well-designed climate policies can simultaneously address both climate stabilization and economic inclusion. These findings emphasize the importance of considering distributional aspects when formulating climate policy, as properly designed interventions can transform climate action into an opportunity for promoting greater economic equality rather than exacerbating existing disparities.
Johannes Emmerling is a Senior Scientist at EIEE and co-leads its Low carbon pathways unit. He was a Senior Researcher at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) between 2012 and 2018. Johannes holds a Ph.D. from the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), a M.A. in Economics from the Free University Berlin and a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Heidelberg. He was a postgraduate fellow in Development Cooperation at the German Development Institute, Bonn. He has been working amongst others at the Social Science Research Center (WZB) Berlin, the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), as Lecturer at Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, and as Consultant for the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the German Institute of Metrology (PTB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank. He is co-leading the development of the integrated assessment model WITCH. His main areas of research include Climate Change and Energy economics, Risk and Uncertainty, Welfare Economics and Development. He has co-authored over fifty articles in peer-reviewed journals and is an Associate Editor of the Public Finance Review. He is a passionate cyclist and plays keyboards in various formations.
Environmental Lecture Series Summer Semester 2025
BEYOND THE SHELF: The environmental debt of our consumption
Every product we take off the shelf and buy comes with a hidden cost – one that is not reflected in the price tag. While we focus on convenience, affordability, and trends, what remains unseen is the environmental debt our consumption creates. From forests cleared for farmland, to rivers polluted by factories over mountains of waste piling up in landfills.
The lecture series Beyond the Shelf: The Environmental Debt of Our Consumption uncovers these hidden consequences. How are the resources for our everyday items extracted? Where do our discarded goods truly end up? How much energy and water are used to produce the things we consume without a second thought? And who – whether people or wildlife – pays the price for our demand for more? Some of these costs are invisible, like the carbon emissions from shipping goods across the world. Others, like electronic waste dumps, are deliberately ignored.
By understanding the debt we are creating, we can begin to make more responsible choices – for ourselves, for others, for the planet, and for the future. Now is the time to look beyond the shelf and ask ourselves: What price are we truly willing to pay?
