Duong, Khanh (2023) The Roles of Poverty and Inequality as Factors in the Impact of Climate Change. Masters thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
As economies continue to grow in the face of global climate change, international
policy is focusing on the combined pursuit of social and environmental development, or
‘sustainable development goals.’ Whilst such goals are often framed from the perspective
of high-income countries, low-income countries struggle to balance their carbonintensive
growth strategies with poverty alleviation, and carbon emission reduction.
Combined with the prospect of economic growth driving income inequality higher, the
potential for a vicious cycle to emerge in low-income countries in particular is
considerable. Whilst the negative association between economic growth and poverty is
well established, the effectiveness of growth-based programmes as a poverty reduction
strategy in the context of climate change and inequality is less certain. I explore the
prospects of balancing these development goals and their consequences using an
international dataset, and generalized method of moments estimators. I find that although
economic development reduces poverty, carbon emissions (from carbon-intensive
growth) coupled with inequality, exacerbates poverty. Secondly, I find that in terms of
poverty reduction, poor countries are negatively impacted by both carbon emissions and
income inequality, while rich countries are primarily impacted by income inequality.
Lastly, my analysis reveals that the impact of emissions on poverty is more pronounced
at higher poverty bands, particularly among individuals teetering on the edge of poverty.
This could be attributed to the heightened vulnerability of their assets to climate changeinduced
risks. Conversely, those at the bottom end of the poverty spectrum may have no
assets that could be affected by climate stressors. These findings suggest that international
policies aimed at achieving globally equitable emissions reduction should take into
account the potential for disproportionate negative impacts on the impoverished
population within a country.
Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
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Keywords: | Poverty and Inequality; Impact; Climate Change; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
Item ID: | 18632 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2024 14:55 |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/18632 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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