Transcript File - Healthy Planet UK

Politics, Poverty and Political
Economy:
The backdrop to climate change
David McCoy
Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Queen Mary University
Medact
Friederich Hayek
Neoliberalism
A set of theories and beliefs
•
•
•
•
•
Free Markets
Small states
Strong private property rights
Low taxation
Monetary policy
•
•
•
Homo economicus
Individualism
All that matters can be priced
•
Idea of economic growth being fundamental
Anglo-American roots ….
•
Associated with ‘globalisation’
Not ‘patriotic’ ….
A political project …..
China ….
Theory ≠ Practice
Latin America ….
So what?
• Rising inequality and enduring poverty
– 50% of humanity lives below $3.25 / day
• Richest 2% of adults owned 51% of global assets in 2000
• Bottom half owned barely 1%
Davies, Sandström, Shorrocks and Wolff, 2006. World Distribution of Household Wealth.
World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER)
Global Gini Coefficient Compared with Frequency
Distribu on for Individual Countries
12
Number of Countries
10
8
6
4
2
0
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
Gini Coefficient (%)
60
65
70
75
80
Source: Alvaredo, Atkinson, Piketty and Saez (2013) ‘The World Top Incomes Database’,
http://topincomes.g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/ Only includes countries with data in
1980 and later than 2008.
Eradicating poverty ($5 / day)
– requires GDP pc > $1.35m (2005 PPP)
• 135x 2010 level
• 40x high-income OECD average
– increasing global GDP by a factor of >170
– takes >200 years at 1993-2010 global growth rate
• By comparison
– Poverty gap = 6.7% of global GDP (PPP)
Source: David Woodward
Eradicating poverty ($1.25-a-day)
– requires GDP pc > $110,000 (2005 PPP)
• 11x 2010 level
• 3.3x high-income OECD average
– increasing global GDP by a factor of nearly 15
– takes >100 years at 1993-2010 global growth rate
• By comparison
– Poverty gap = 0.6% of global GDP (PPP)
Source: David Woodward
Video: http://www.medact.org/resources/multimedia/david-woodward
-rack-hot-place-can-reconcile-poverty-eradication-tackling-climate-change/
Global Growth and Poverty with Binding Carbon
Constraints
Carbon intensity of global GDP must fall 92-97% to limit climate change to +2°C
Far beyond the potential of known/anticipated technologies
Global
growth
Markets/
opportunities
Poverty
reduction
Increased
emissions
Climate
change
Poverty
increase
So what?
•
Inequality and enduring poverty
– The rich provoke climate change through over consumption
– The poor commit ecological suicide at a local level through desperation and short term
survival
•
Intellectual property rights regime
•
Corporate capture
– Monopolies and oligopolies
•
Financialisation
•
Political failures / democratic deficits
The Global
Health
Paradox
Implications
• Alternative development paradigm
• Global governance
• Political bottlenecks / millstones
Between the Rack and a Hot Place: Can we Reconcile Poverty Eradication and
Tackling Climate Change?
David Woodward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFpHs0sDKug
Health professionals for a fairer, safer and better world
Weapons and
War
Economic
Justice
Climate and
Ecology
Nuclear weapons
Tax and Health
Global warming
Impact assessment
Trade, investment and
finance
Nuclear energy
Access to care for
refugees, asylum
seekers
Water
People held in detention
Biological and chemical
warfare
Protection of civilians
and health workers
Intellectual property /
Privatisation of
knowledge
Non-nuclear weapons
Health and
Human Rights
Human rights medicine
and medical complicity
in torture
Privatisation and
commercialisation of
health care
Drones
Psycho-social
rehabilitation post
conflict
Corporate capture of
public health
Holistic analysis of the inter-connectedness of these issues
looked through the lens of health, sustainability and justice …..
Food worth a week of discussion ……
Read up
Be empowered
Recognise that we are led by many an
emperor with no clothes ….
Recognise that we are also ruled by
many who need to be opposed …..
But the bulk of us are decent and
sensible
Thankyou