Inequality matters: patterns of policy interventions in states’ Paris climate plans

Despite globally rising inequality levels, consideration of this core aspect of social sustainability is largely missing from climate policy assessments. This way, climate policy risks becoming a missed opportunity for reducing inequalities, instead causing unequally distributed effects. This study responds to calls for greater coherence between social dimensions of sustainable development and climate action. We chart the state of play for inequality matters in climate policy, by examining if and how states propose interventions to address inequality in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. Following warnings that vested interests, faulty institutions, and power asymmetries inhibit effective implementation of inequality-mitigating actions related to climate policy, the study also maps the cross-country patterns of proposed inequality interventions to identify how inequalities are addressed by different types of states. The study shows that two thirds of states address inequality in their NDCs and that inequality considerations are especially prominent among countries with lower levels of human development and greater income inequality. We conclude that, while the viability of intervention proposals is uncertain at best, addressing inequalities in the NDCs can serve as a gateway to a more systematic incorporation of inequalities in the Paris Agreement.