The Guardian view on climate equality: a richer life and real public abundance, not just more stuff | Editorial

The Global Justice Report offers a hopeful bargain: tax extreme wealth and replace consumer excess with social and economic security for all

Humanity can raise living standards, reduce inequality and keep global heating within a 2C rise, according to a sweeping vision for planetary survival, the Guardian reported last week. In an age of ecological dread, that is a bracingly hopeful claim. The optimism came courtesy of the Global Justice Report, produced by Thomas Piketty’s World Inequality Lab.

It arrives against the grain of the times. Anti‑migrant demagoguery, fossil-fuel revivalism, attacks on multilateralism and billionaire capture all militate against the redistributive state capacity that the report requires. Yet Prof Piketty’s team insists that decarbonisation, “sufficiency” and equality can mean a good life for most people.