A new research article linking economic growth and extreme heat has highlighted that the worst impacted communities will likely be the least culpable when it comes to man-made climate impacts.
According to researchers Christopher W. Callahan and Justin S. Mankin, “global inequality is both a cause and consequence of the unequal burden of climate change”.
The report, Globally unequal effect of extreme heat on economic growth, shows that human-caused increases in heat waves have the worst economic effects in relatively poor tropical regions, where populations are least responsible for climate-impacting activities.
Researchers say their work held three key findings, including that increased extreme heat intensity had a significantly negative effect on economic growth in tropical regions, while it only weakly affected the cooler mid-latitude regions.
The second finding was that anthropogenic – or man-made – climate change has increased the frequency of these heat extremes. Finally, the resulting effects of climate change on heat events, say researchers, have “amplified underlying inequality, disproportionately harming low-income, low-emitting regions”.
Through demonstrating “the economic costs and their unequal global distribution”, researchers aim to highlight the urgency of both climate action and investments focused on equipping the poorest parts of the world to manage the hottest days of the year.
Read the full report, published in Science Advances, here.