This impact story is from our 2020 annual report.

A report from Oxfam and SEI revealed that the richest 1% are responsible for twice as much carbon emissions as the poorest half of the world’s population. The work gained widespread attention – from major media outlets, key policymakers, and prominent influencers – and has already spawned follow-up research, analysis and tools.

This research shifted attention to a critical but often overlooked aspect of climate policy: equity. Not only does climate change affect the vulnerable and poor the most, it’s also been shown to deepen inequality, both within and between countries. The research took a subject that can seem abstract and put it into easy-to-grasp, stark terms, resulting in more than 2000 online and print articles. It also armed policymakers and key actors with data to call on the privileged to pull their fair weight in the race to limit warming to well below 2°C. Among those calling for action were UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who used the report’s findings in a TED talk, and tweets from Greta Thunberg, Bill McKibben, the UN Climate Summit office, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UK Climate Champion Nigel Topping.

SEI worked with Oxfam International as its partner and funder. SEI took the lead on the nuts-and-bolts research, which required an exploration of complex real-world relationships and a difficult underlying data set, combining global and national income inequality data with national consumption emissions from 117 countries. The resulting tool – called the Emissions Inequality Dashboard – allows users to explore the inequalities in CO₂ emissions across the world, linking emissions to income levels.

This work fed into the Carbon Inequality Era report, led by SEI with contributions from Oxfam, as well as a summary media brief (also released in Arabic). Oxfam, as in previous collaborations, took the lead on outreach, working with SEI to come up with timely and politically relevant framing, and using their high profile and global network to publicize the work, including a launch event with former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Chair of the International Trade Union Confederation Sharan Burrows.

SEI and Oxfam have collaborated several times in recent years, and this set the foundation for a targeted, impactful result. The roles and strengths of the organizations complement each other, combining SEI’s reputation as a research institute with Oxfam’s global network and leadership on global poverty initiatives.

Oxfam’s focus on policy impact and outreach also ensured that the research didn’t get lost amid a crowded field. Clear messages and policy-relevant data were priorities throughout.