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Climate change and inequality

Climate change is a human-made disaster that is already reversing progress made in the fight against inequality

Climate change is not a crisis of shared responsibility or equal consequences. The richest people, corporations, and countries produce a vastly disproportionate share of emissions, while people who have done the least to cause the crisis are losing their homes, livelihoods, and food security. Climate justice means holding the biggest polluters accountable while investing in the communities on the front lines.

How climate change, climate justice, and inequality connect

Climate change and inequality reinforce one another. Extreme wealth enables a small number of people to consume in ways that create extraordinary levels of pollution. When climate disasters strike, existing inequalities then determine who is most exposed, who suffers the greatest harm, and who has the resources to recover. Each flood, drought, wildfire, or food shock can strip away livelihoods and assets, leaving communities with fewer resources to withstand the next crisis.

The result is a vicious cycle. Inequality fuels climate breakdown, and climate breakdown deepens inequality.

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People living in poverty are more likely to live and work in places exposed to extreme heat, flooding, drought, and storms. Inadequate housing, insecure work, limited access to healthcare, and damaged ecosystems can make climate hazards more dangerous. At the same time, a lack of savings, social protection, land rights, and public services can make it harder for people to prepare, evacuate, rebuild, and recover.

Climate shocks can then push people further into poverty. Unpredictable growing seasons and crop failures threaten livelihoods and food supplies, while damage to homes and productive assets can force families to take on debt, reduce food consumption, sell livestock or equipment, or leave their communities. When these shocks happen repeatedly, people have fewer resources to withstand the next emergency.

These impacts are also shaped by longstanding racial, gender, and economic inequalities. Women and girls often take on additional unpaid care work and may face greater risks of hunger, violence, and exploitation during and after disasters. Black, Indigenous, and other historically marginalized communities frequently face greater exposure to pollution and climate hazards while having fewer resources and less power to influence decisions about preparedness, adaptation, and recovery.

Climate justice means addressing these inequalities as part of climate action. Effective solutions must reduce emissions, hold the biggest polluters accountable, strengthen public services and social protection, and provide communities on the front lines with the resources and decision-making power to lead adaptation and recovery efforts.

The ultra-wealthy drive climate change through their lifestyles and their ownership of polluting corporations. The richest 0.1% produce more emissions than the poorest 44%. The investment portfolios of 1,000 billionaires were also associated with 486 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, comparable to the emissions of the world’s 19th most-polluting country.

Our Priorities for Climate Action

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Clenda Marisol Ramírez Pérez next to her corn plot. She lives with her 2 daughters and husband in the Community of Matazano, municipality of Jocotán, department of Chiquimula. Her husband is a day laborer but with very little chance of working. They have a small plot of corn that has not matured because of the drought. Pablo Tosco/Oxfam
Make rich polluters pay

The richest individuals, major polluting corporations, and wealthy countries bear the greatest responsibility for the climate crisis. They must cut their emissions first and contribute their fair share toward the costs of climate action, adaptation, and recovery.

Oxfam is calling for progressive taxes on extreme wealth and income, taxes on activities such as private aviation, and stronger regulation requiring corporations to disclose and reduce emissions throughout their operations. The revenue raised can help fund climate action and support communities experiencing the greatest harm.

Stand with communities on the front lines

Communities experiencing the greatest climate risks are not inherently vulnerable. Their exposure and ability to recover are shaped by unequal access to safe housing, public services, land, and power.

Climate adaptation should be locally led, gender-responsive, and backed by adequate financing. That means investing in social protection, climate-resilient infrastructure, early warning systems, sustainable livelihoods, and the leadership and knowledge of the people closest to the risks.

Addressing economic, racial, and gender injustice

Climate disasters do not affect everyone equally. Economic, racial, and gender inequalities shape where people live and work, the resources available to them, and whether they can recover after a disaster. Climate justice requires confronting these inequalities as part of climate action, not as an afterthought.

A review of 130 studies found that women and girls experienced greater climate-related health impacts than men and boys in 68% of cases. Climate disasters also increase unpaid care work, as women and girls are more often expected to secure food and water, care for family members, and rebuild community support systems.

Local expertise and women’s leadership is resourced to build resilience and shape solutions. The gendered impact of the climate crisis is reflected in the design, implementation and evaluation of the strategies intended to address it.

Oxfam’s Climate Change Initiatives

People are at the center of our approach to climate action. We strive to elevate the voices of indigenous peoples, farmers, pastoralists, and fishing communities to be heard in national deliberations over policy change. And we work to ensure that national-level development processes and investments promote resilience and prioritize communities in harm’s way.

Oxfam is working with partners and climate change advocates to counteract the effects of climate change on communities facing marginalization and exclusion, and we are pushing for those most capable of addressing the climate crisis to move first and most ambitiously.

For over a decade, Oxfam has campaigned to raise awareness of the unequal effects of climate change and to urge global leaders to take action. We are proud to be an organization fighting climate change with allies to address the root causes and impacts of this crisis.

In our environmental and climate change work we:

  • Support small-scale farmers to adopt agricultural practices that will buffer them from the harmful effects of climate change.
  • Work to enhance international climate ambition and cooperation by supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement and driving equitable climate finance investments.
  • Stand with indigenous and other communities advocating for their rights to land governance, water management, and food security where they are at risk from the drivers of deforestation and natural resource degradation.
  • Call for a just and feminist transition from harmful fossil fuels to renewable energy and sustainable agriculture that is good for people and the planet
  • Advocate for national action to equitably reduce emissions of pollutants that contribute to the climate crisis and negatively affect human and crop health.
  • Call on elected officials to protect those most vulnerable to climate change and invest in equitable solutions to the climate crisis.

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Climate change and inequality are inextricably linked. Karelia Pallan/Oxfam

Climate justice: frequently asked questions

What is climate justice?

Climate justice recognizes that those who have contributed the least to climate change often experience its greatest impacts, while the people, corporations, and countries producing the most emissions have more resources to protect themselves. It calls for the biggest polluters to cut emissions, pay their fair share, and support solutions led by affected communities.

How is inequality connected to climate change?

Inequality helps drive climate change because wealthier people and corporations produce a disproportionate share of emissions. Inequality also determines who is most exposed to climate hazards and who has the resources and support needed to recover. Climate disasters can then deepen existing inequalities.

What role do frontline communities play in climate justice?

Frontline communities hold essential knowledge about their lands, livelihoods, and local climate risks. Effective climate action should provide resources and decision-making power to Indigenous peoples, women’s organizations, farmers, and other local groups rather than imposing solutions from the top down.

What should governments do to advance climate justice?

Governments should rapidly reduce emissions, make rich polluters pay, provide fair and grant-based climate finance, invest in universal public services and social protection, and ensure that adaptation is locally led, inclusive, and gender-responsive.

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