A G20 taskforce established under South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for the creation of an international panel to address rising inequality, cautioning that extreme disparities in wealth threaten democracy and economic stability, Reuters reported.
“The world understands that we have a climate emergency; it’s time we recognise that we face an inequality emergency too,” said Joseph Stiglitz, who leads the Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality.
The committee’s report, commissioned during South Africa’s G20 presidency, revealed that the richest 1% of the global population have captured 41% of new wealth since 2000.
In contrast, the poorest 50% of people have seen their wealth grow by only 1%, according to data from the World Inequality Lab.
“It isn’t just unfair and undermining societal cohesion, it’s a problem for our economy and our politics too,” added Stiglitz, a Nobel prize-winning economist.
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The taskforce proposed that the new inequality panel be modelled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), tasked with monitoring the causes and impacts of inequality and providing actionable insights for governments and policymakers.
The report also highlighted that 83% of all countries, representing 90% of the world’s population, meet the World Bank’s definition of inequality, and noted that nations with high inequality are at greater risk of democratic erosion.
Citing a “perfect storm” of global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and trade disputes, the authors warned that these shocks have exacerbated poverty and inequality.
They noted that one in four people worldwide regularly skip meals, while billionaire wealth has reached record highs.
This inequality taskforce marks the first of its kind for the G20 and is expected to present its findings to G20 leaders at the upcoming summit in Johannesburg this November. The United States will assume the rotating G20 presidency at the end of the year.
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Image Credit: The Jerusalem Post
