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	Climate chaos and food crises are serious and mounting threats by Antonio Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations   Feb. 2024   Climate chaos and food crises are serious and mounting threats to global peace and security. A global food crisis is creating a hellscape of hunger and heartache for many of the world’s poorest people. And the climate crisis is accelerating with a deadly force – last year was the hottest ever.   Both these facts undermine peace. Empty bellies fuel unrest. Climate disasters and conflict both inflame inequalities, imperil livelihoods, and force people from their homes. That can strain relations, stoke mistrust, and sow discontent.   While diminished resources and mass displacement can intensify competition. Conflict can easily be sparked where tensions are high, institutions are weak, and people are marginalised. And women and girls pay the highest price. Just as they do when food is short and climate disasters hit.   At the same time, climate and conflict are two leading drivers of our global food crisis. Where wars rage, hunger reigns – whether due to displacement of people, destruction of agriculture, damage to infrastructure, or deliberate policies of denial.   Meanwhile, climate chaos is imperilling food production the world over. Floods and droughts destroy crops, ocean changes disrupt fishing, rising seas degrade land and freshwater, and shifting weather patterns ruin harvests and spawn pests.   Climate and conflict were the main causes of acute food insecurity for almost 174 million people in 2022. And in many cases, they collide to hit communities with a double blow.   I am dismayed to say that our world today is teeming with examples of the devastating relationship between hunger and conflict.   In Syria, almost thirteen million people go to bed hungry after a decade of war and a horrendous earthquake. In Myanmar, conflict and political instability have thrown progress towards ending hunger into reverse. In Gaza, no one has enough to eat. Of the 700,000 hungriest people in the world, four in five inhabit that tiny strip of land.   In many places, climate disasters add another dimension. Every one of the fourteen countries most at risk from climate change are suffering conflict. Thirteen of them face humanitarian crisis this year.   In Haiti, hurricanes combine with violence and lawlessness to create a humanitarian crisis for millions. In Ethiopia, drought comes hot on the heels of war. Almost sixteen million people are estimated to require food assistance this year. And refugees from the conflict in neighbouring Sudan are adding pressure on already scarce resources.   In the Sahel, rising temperatures are raising tensions: Drying-up water resources, wrecking grazing land, and ruining smallholder agriculture – the staple of local economies. Against a backdrop of longstanding political instability, conflict between farmers and herders is the result.   Meanwhile, globally, we risk a resurgence of food inflation as droughts sap the Panama Canal and violence hits the Red Sea – throwing supply chains into disarray.   Without action, the situation will deteriorate. Conflicts are multiplying. The climate crisis is set to spiral, as emissions continue to rise. And acute food insecurity has been increasing year on year.   The World Food Programme estimates that over 330 million people were affected in 2023. And it has warned of an acute deterioration in eighteen “hunger hotspots” early this year.   To avoid mounting threats to international peace and security, we must step in. And act now to break the deadly links between conflict, climate and food insecurity.   First, all parties to all conflicts must abide by international humanitarian law. Far too often, this is not the case. Security Council Resolution 2417 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict is clear: goods essential to civilians’ survival must be protected. Starvation of civilians may constitute a war crime. And humanitarians must have unimpeded access to civilians in need.   The UN Security Council has a critical role in demanding compliance, and holding those who breach the resolution to account.   Second, we must fund humanitarian operations in full – to prevent disaster and conflict from feeding hunger. Last year, humanitarian operations were less than 40 percent funded. Around a third of the money for these operations was earmarked for tackling food insecurity.   Third, we must create the conditions to resolve conflict and preserve peace – within countries and between countries. Exclusion, inequalities and poverty all increase the risk of conflict.   Advancing progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – including our goal of zero hunger – is the answer. We need massive investment in a just transformation to healthy, equitable and sustainable food systems. And we need governments, business and society working together to make such systems a reality.   Today we see a grotesque disparity between allocation and need as hundreds of millions of people go to bed hungry every night.   And food production and distribution are responsible for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. We must create food systems that feed the planet without wrecking the planet. That means aligning climate action and food systems to help secure sustainable development, good livelihoods, and healthy people on a healthy planet.   This requires working together, and bringing all people – women, young people and marginalized communities – into decision-making.   We must build and finance social protection systems to protect livelihoods and ensure basic access to services and resources.   And we must strengthen and renew global peace and security frameworks. It is vital that we make the most of the Summit of the Future later this year, where Member States will consider the proposed New Agenda for Peace. This presents a comprehensive vision for peace in our changing world, based on prevention and international law, and anchored in human rights. And it recognizes the links between sustainable development, climate action, and peace.   Fourth, we must get a grip on the climate crisis to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Because climate action is action for food security and action for peace.   G20 nations must lead a just global phase out of fossil fuels, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances.   And all countries must create ambitious new national climate action plans – or nationally determined contributions – by 2025, that align with the 1.5-degree limit.   We must also get serious about adaptation: Ensuring every person on earth is protected by an early warning system by 2027, and that early warning leads to early action; And delivering adequate adaptation finance.   Developed countries must clarify how they will honour the promised $40 billion a year in adaptation finance by 2025. And they must show how the adaptation finance gap will be closed.   We also need substantial contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund established at COP28. And we need to support local institutions to take the lead in reducing disaster risk in their areas.   Today, a cost-of-living crisis, and unsustainable levels of debt mean that many developing countries simply cannot afford to invest in climate action, resilient food systems, or other sustainable development priorities.   I have proposed an SDG Stimulus of $500 billion a year in affordable, long-term finance for sustainable development and climate action. That includes urgent action on debt – breathing space for countries facing crippling repayment over the next three years will be critical.   We also need to recapitalize the Multilateral Development Banks and to change their business models to enable them to leverage far more private finance at reasonable cost for developing countries. And we need all countries to prioritise spending on the Sustainable Development Goals.   It is distressing to see governments spending heavily on arms, while starving budgets for food security, climate action, and broader sustainable development.   The message is clear: we can break the deadly nexus of hunger, climate chaos, and conflict. And quell the threat they pose to international peace and security. Let’s act to do so and build a liveable, sustainable future, free from hunger, and free from the scourge of war. Visit the related web page
	Extreme Inequality is a Human Rights Issue by Oxfam, IPS, Human Rights Watch, agencies   Feb. 2024   Less than eight cents in every dollar raised in tax revenue in G20 countries now comes from taxes on wealth, reveals new analysis by Oxfam ahead of the first meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Sao Paulo, Brazil.   By comparison, more than 32 cents in every dollar (over four times as much) is collected from taxes on goods and services. Taxes on food and other necessities, for example, shift more of the tax burden onto lower-income families.   Oxfam’s research also found that the share of national income going to the top 1 percent of earners in G20 countries has increased by 45 percent over the last four decades. During the same period, the top tax rates on their incomes has fallen by roughly a third (from around 60 percent in 1980 to 40 percent in 2022).   The top 1 percent of earners in G20 countries made more than $18 trillion in income 2022, a figure higher than the GDP of China.   In countries including Brazil, France, Italy, the UK and US, the super-rich pay an effective tax rate lower than the average worker. G20 countries are home to nearly four out of five of the world’s billionaires.   "In country after country, a war on fair taxation has coincided with a war on democracy, putting more money and power into the hands of a tiny, inequality-fueling elite. As the finance ministers of the world's largest economies gather this week, this contest takes center stage: will they reclaim their democracies by taxing the super-rich?" said Katia Maia, Executive Director of Oxfam Brazil.   Brazil, at the helm of the G20, has plans to forge the first global agreement on taxing the super-rich to reduce global inequality. A recent poll has revealed that nearly three-quarters of millionaires in G20 countries support higher taxes on wealth, and over half think extreme wealth is a “threat to democracy.”   Higher taxes on the wealth and income of the richest could raise the trillions of dollars needed to tackle both inequality and climate breakdown. For example, Oxfam estimates that a wealth tax of up to 5 percent on the G20’s multimillionaires and billionaires could raise nearly $1.5 trillion a year.   This would be enough to end global hunger, help low- and middle-income countries adapt to climate change, and bring the world back on track to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) —and still leave more than $546 billion to invest in inequality-busting public services and climate action in G20 countries.   “A fair tax system can curb inequality and foster healthier, more inclusive societies,” said Maia. “Higher taxes for the super-rich means being able to invest in working families, protecting the climate, and making important public services like education and healthcare available to all. It also means being able to repair holes in social safety nets, to soften the blow of future crises.”   http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/less-8-cents-every-dollar-tax-revenue-collected-g20-countries-comes-taxes-wealth http://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621477/bp-survival-of-the-richest-160123-en.pdf http://cesr.org/cesr-and-civil-society-allies-present-historic-taxation-recommendations-to-brazils-finance-minister-and-g20-authorities http://www.taxobservatory.eu/gabriel-zucmans-address-at-the-g20-finance-ministers-meeting-on-february-29-2024/ http://wid.world/news-article/paris-conference-calls-for-un-tax-convention-to-combat-inequality/ http://taxjustice.net/press/un-agrees-plan-for-wealth-tax-law-blueprint/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/wealthy-countries-push-back-as-un-moves-ahead-with-global-tax-plan/   Jan. 2024   The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020 —at a rate of $14 million per hour— while nearly five billion people have been made poorer, reveals a new Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power. If current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade but poverty won’t be eradicated for another 229 years.   “Inequality Inc.”, published today as business elites gather in the Swiss resort town of Davos, reveals that seven out of ten of the world’s biggest corporations have a billionaire as CEO or principal shareholder. These corporations are worth $10.2 trillion, equivalent to more than the combined GDPs of all countries in Africa and Latin America.   “We’re witnessing the beginnings of a decade of division, with billions of people shouldering the economic shockwaves of pandemic, inflation and war, while billionaires’ fortunes boom. This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.   “Runaway corporate and monopoly power is an inequality-generating machine: through squeezing workers, dodging tax, privatizing the state, and spurring climate breakdown, corporations are funneling endless wealth to their ultra-rich owners. But they’re also funneling power, undermining our democracies and our rights. No corporation or individual should have this much power over our economies and our lives —to be clear, nobody should have a billion dollars”.   The past three years’ supercharged surge in extreme wealth has solidified while global poverty remains mired at pre-pandemic levels. Billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020, and their wealth has grown three times faster than the rate of inflation.   Despite representing just 21 percent of the global population, rich countries in the Global North own 69 percent of global wealth and are home to 74 percent of the world’s billionaire wealth.   Share ownership overwhelmingly benefits the richest. The top 1 percent own 43 percent of all global financial assets. They hold 48 percent of financial wealth in the Middle East, 50 percent in Asia and 47 percent in Europe.   Mirroring the fortunes of the super-rich, large firms are set to smash their annual profit records in 2023. 148 of the world’s biggest corporations together raked in $1.8 trillion in total net profits in the year to June 2023, a 52 percent jump compared to average net profits in 2018-2021. Their windfall profits surged to nearly $700 billion. The report finds that for every $100 of profit made by 96 major corporations between July 2022 and June 2023, $82 was paid out to rich shareholders.   Bernard Arnault is the world’s second richest man who presides over luxury goods empire LVMH, which has been fined by France‘s anti-trust body. He also owns France’s biggest media outlet, Les Echos, as well as Le Parisien.   Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, holds a “near-monopoly” on cement in Nigeria. His empire’s expansion into oil has raised concerns about a new private monopoly.   Jeff Bezos’s fortune of $167.4 billion increased by $32.7 billion since the beginning of the decade. The US government has sued Amazon, the source of Bezos’ fortune, for wielding its “monopoly power” to hike prices, degrade service for shoppers and stifle competition.   “Monopolies harm innovation and crush workers and smaller businesses. The world hasn’t forgotten how pharma monopolies deprived millions of people of COVID-19 vaccines, creating a racist vaccine apartheid, while minting a new club of billionaires,” said Behar.   People worldwide are working harder and longer hours, often for poverty wages in precarious and unsafe jobs. The wages of nearly 800 million workers have failed to keep up with inflation and they have lost $1.5 trillion over the last two years, equivalent to nearly a month (25 days) of lost wages for each worker.   New Oxfam analysis of World Benchmarking Alliance data on more than 1,600 of the largest corporations worldwide shows that 0.4 percent of them are publicly committed to paying workers a living wage and support a living wage in their value chains. It would take 1,200 years for a woman working in the health and social sector to earn what the average CEO in the biggest 100 Fortune companies earns in a year.   Oxfam's report also shows how a "war on taxation" by corporations has seen the effective corporate tax rate fall by roughly a third in recent decades, while corporations have relentlessly privatized the public sector and segregated services like education and water.   “We have the evidence. We know the history. Public power can rein in runaway corporate power and inequality —shaping the market to be fairer and free from billionaire control.   Governments must intervene to break up monopolies, empower workers, tax these massive corporate profits and, crucially, invest in a new era of public goods and services,” said Behar.   “Every corporation has a responsibility to act but very few are. Governments must step up. There is action that lawmakers can learn from, from US anti-monopoly government enforcers suing Amazon in a landmark case, to the European Commission wanting Google to break up its online advertising business, and Africa’s historic fight to reshape international tax rules.”   Oxfam is calling on governments to rapidly and radically reduce the gap between the super-rich and the rest of society by:   Revitalizing the state. A dynamic and effective state is the best bulwark against extreme corporate power. Governments should ensure universal provision of healthcare and education, and explore publicly-delivered goods and public options in sectors from energy to transportation.   Reining in corporate power, including by breaking up monopolies and democratizing patent rules. This also means legislating for living wages, capping CEO pay, and new taxes on the super-rich and corporations, including permanent wealth and excess profit taxes. Oxfam estimates that a wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires could generate $1.8 trillion a year.   Reinventing business. Competitive and profitable businesses don’t have to be shackled by shareholder greed. Democratically-owned businesses better equalize the proceeds of business. If just 10 percent of US businesses were employee-owned, this could double the wealth share of the poorest half of the US population, including doubling the average wealth of Black households.   http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/wealth-five-richest-men-doubles-2020-five-billion-people-made-poorer-decade-division http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/inequality-inc-how-corporate-power-divides-our-world-and-the-need-for-a-new-era-621583/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/income-inequality-high-or-rising-60-percent-countries-loans-imf-and-world-bank http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/new-report-taken-not-earned-how-monopolists-drive-the-worlds-power-and-wealth-divide/   Jan. 2024   Asked about the status of women in a world of rising economic inequalities, Rebecca Riddell, policy lead for economic and racial justice at Oxfam America, told IPS: “Women pay the highest price for a broken global economy”.   Globally, she pointed out, men own US$105 trillion more wealth than women—equivalent to more than four times the size of the US economy—and women earn just 51 cents for every $1 made by men.   “Women are also especially harmed by the policies that fuel our inequality crisis, like tax breaks for the rich and cuts to public services,” said Riddell, one of the authors of the Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power.   They carry out the vast majority of unpaid care work, which is vital to keeping our communities and economies afloat, and their labor is constantly undervalued in the workplace, she noted.   “We found it would take 1,200 years for women working in the health and social sector to earn what the average CEO at the biggest Fortune 100 companies makes in just one year,” declared Riddell.   http://www.ipsnews.net/2024/01/worlds-richest-men-leave-women-far-behind-amid-rising-economic-inequalities/   Jan. 2024   Extreme Inequality is a Human Rights Issue, by Andrew Stroehlein for Human Rights Watch   As the annual gathering of the extreme elite kicks off in Davos today, I’m reminded of an argument I often have with an old friend.   It always starts with some news item about the number of billionaires somewhere: “the US is doing great – look at the number of billionaires they have!” Or, “you can see China’s getting better by the increasing number of billionaires there.” Or, “Look at the number of billionaires in India now!”   The prospect of the world’s first trillionaire has him almost unbearably excited: “Who will it be?”   To these friendly provocations, I eventually crack and respond with something like: does humanity really need a trillionaire? In what way will the world be a better place when someone becomes the first trillionaire?   Then, I remind him that the number of super-rich people says nothing about the greatness of a country. Greatness, to me, has far more to do with the overall happiness of its population. Some say billionaires create wealth (and therefore happiness, in their eyes), but, practically by definition, it looks more like they’re hoarding it.   Vast riches have always sparked admiration among many folks like my friend, but they’ve also increased envy and resentment among others. A system perceived as unfairly benefitting a tiny few while the vast majority are essentially told to live on the scraps of what the rich leave behind doesn’t sound like a stable system to me. I don’t see any national benefit there.   What’s more, extreme inequality is a human rights issue. Among other things, it contributes to corruption and mismanagement of public resources, which further reduces access to the keys to a dignified life: affordable healthcare, quality education, adequate housing, a living wage, social protection, and safe drinking water.   Human Rights Watch research frequently exposes how people in poverty are often more vulnerable to having their rights violated. Extreme disparities in wealth mean extreme disparities in power, and thus a greater potential for human rights abuses, which, of course, tends to happen more to those without power than to those with it.   To coincide with the start of billionaires’ private jets arriving for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam has published a new report on global inequality. It reads: “Since 2020, the richest five men in the world have doubled their fortunes. During the same period, almost five billion people globally have become poorer. Hardship and hunger are a daily reality for many people worldwide. At current rates, it will take 230 years to end poverty, but we could have our first trillionaire in 10 years.” That doesn’t sound like greatness to me.   http://www.hrw.org/topic/economic-justice-and-rights/poverty-and-inequality http://wid.world/news-article/whats-new-about-wealth-inequality-in-the-world/ Visit the related web page
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