‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival

The World Inequality Lab is calling for hefty wealth taxes, reduced working hours, dietary changes and new investment priorities. Composite: Guardian Design//AP View image in fullscreen The World Inequality Lab is calling for hefty wealth taxes, reduced working hours, dietary changes and new investment priorities. Composite: Guardian Design//AP ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival Global report provides an alternative to climate breakdown, political extremism and economic tensions ‘Happiness is not just about GDP’: ambitious plan or utopia? Humanity can raise living standards, reduce inequality and keep global heating within a 2C rise, according to a sweeping vision for planetary survival. The report (WIL) aims to be the most comprehensive attempt yet to navigate the polycrisis that is pushing the world toward climate breakdown, political extremism and ever greater economic and social tension. View image in fullscreen A drone view shows the stark inequality between neighbourhoods in Santa Fe, Mexico City Photograph: Raquel Cunha/ReutersIt offers a set of bold policy proposals, including hefty wealth taxes on billionaires, sharp reductions in working hours, a change in diets and a shift of investment from materially intense sectors, such as industry and mining, to education and health. If these and other measures are taken, the report says, the incomes of 89% of the world’s population would double by 2100 and global heating would be kept below 2C above the preindustrial average. The authors say their vision provides a positive alternative to the grim projections from far-right techno extractivists, nationalists and billionaires who claim the future will inevitably bring more fossil fuels, climate disruption and inequality. “There’s a huge cultural, intellectual, political battle that is going on. And we all have a role to play,” said Thomas Piketty, a co-director of the WIL and a professor at the Paris School of Economics. View image in fullscreen Economics professor Thomas Piketty says Trump-style policies will end in disaster. Photograph: Ed Alcock“The ideology which we see with [Donald] Trump and all the little Trumps that we have all across Europe and all across the world is simply not going to deliver. At the end of the day we’ll have to come to this kind of cooperative redistribution of resources and power because the alternative will simply lead to disastrous outcomes both on the environment, on the climate, but also on social grounds. A good life for the 99% isn’t a pipe dream: it can be done.