By Liz Gadd, Environmental Lead at New Philanthropy Capital and Programme Director for Everyone’s Environment
To address climate change and wider environmental harm, we need to change how we live, work, travel, eat, and more. This ‘transition’ to a new way of living that is less reliant on fossil fuels and other harmful human activity is an opportunity to address historic inequality and eradicate poverty.
People experiencing poverty have contributed the least to climate change, for example twelve billionaires’ carbon emissions are equal to fueling 2.1m homes. Yet despite contributing the least to the problem, the poorest communities are hit hardest by our changing environment on a global level and here in the UK. This also means that those in poverty in the UK stand to benefit the most from environmental policies that are fair and maximise the opportunities to simultaneously address social inequity.
New Philanthropy Capital (NPC)’s recent publication ’How will the climate and nature crises affect people living in poverty?’ details the challenges and the opportunities for a fairer, healthier future for everyone.
Here are just five examples of the co-benefits that can be achieved for people in poverty through environmental action:
- Insulating and ventilating homes can reduce carbon emissions and household bills; reduce mould and associated health issues – including respiratory problems, hormonal imbalances in women that cause weight gain and mood swings, and erectile dysfunction in men
- Reducing air pollution lowers the risk of a wide range of health issues for people experiencing poverty, including respiratory diseases, heart conditions, mental health issues, and diabetes – lower income groups experiencing air pollution have twice the level of lung function decline and a three times greater risk of COPD compared to higher income groups with the same air pollution exposure
- Interventions to reduce the risk of flooding safeguards people from the cost of repairs; 67% of the poorest households in Britain, and 61% of low income renters, do not have home contents insurance, making them more susceptible to a financial shock in the event of flooding – the average cost of floods has been estimated at £50,000 per home, a figure that no household in poverty could cover in the event of a flood
- Interventions to limited climate change and to adapt homes to cope with increased heat will particularly support people experiencing poverty, who are more than twice as likely to live in places which are significantly hotter than neighbouring areas, due to the urban heat island effect – it also helps help people with the challenges of managing heat such as electricity costs for running fans, costs to turn on lights if blinds are closed, and travel costs to cooler green spaces
- The transition is forecast to create more jobs than will be lost (135,000 – 725,000 jobs created, vs 8,000 – 75,000 lost), but this will require targeted training and support to enable people, including those in poverty, to move into jobs emerging in a greener economy.
For environmental policy and local adaptation to work, it must work for everyone. However, that is not guaranteed.
Charities have an important role to play in ensuring people in poverty have a voice in decisions that affect their lives. Policymakers must involve representatives of all groups affected, and charities can support that process as we already have trusted relationships with people facing multiple disadvantage.
Everyone’s Environment, a coalition of 70 charities, is working to make this case. We share our learning and resources widely. If you want to take environmental action that contributes to eradicating poverty, get in touch.
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This article is featured in our 14 August newsletter.
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